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REMGION OF THE INDIAN TRIBES 



OF 

NORTH AMERICA. 

DELIVERED BEFORE 

THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 

DECEMBER 20, 1819. 



BY SAMUEL FAR MAR JAR VIS, 

D. D. A. A. S. 



Jusques dans leurs demarches les plus ind'flerpntes on appert,oit des traces de la 
religion primitive; mais qui echapent a ceu\, qui ue les efudierit pas asscz, par la 
raison qu'ellf s sont encore plus eflacees par le defaut d'iustruction, qu'alterees par 
;<. melange d'un culte superstitieux, et par des traditions Ubnleusea. ...Ckurlrroix 



JVEW-YORK. 

rtfEMSHED BY C. WILE\ & CO. 3 WALL STREET. 
C. S. Van Winkle, Printer. 

1820 



598 






. \ 



NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



December 20th, 1819. 

Resolved, that the thanks of this Society be presented to the 
Rev. Samuel F. Jarvis, D. D. for the Anniversary Dis- 
course delivered by him this day, and that he be respectfully 
requested to furnish the Society with a copy for publication. 

Resolved, that Doctor A. W. Ives, G. C. Verplanck, 
and M. C. Paterson, Esqrs. be a Committee to ivait on 
the Reverend Doctor Jarvis, with this resolution. 

JOHN PINTARD, 

Recording Secretary, 



A 

DISCOURSE 

ON 

THE RELIGION OF THE INDIAN TRIBES 

OF 

NORTH AMERICA. 



Mr. President, and 

Gentlemen of the Historical Society, 

In surveying those portions of American history, 
from which I might select a subject for the present 
occasion, it appeared to me, that the religion of the 
Indian tribes of North America, had not been viewed 
with that largeness of observation, which is the 
characteristic of enlightened philosophy. Various 
causes may be mentioned, which have hitherto con- 
spired to prevent, or to impede, such an examination. 
In the first place, the horror, proceeding from the 
cruelties of their warfare, forbade the calmness of 
investigation. As long as they were formidable, 
curiosity was overpowered by terror ; and there 
was neither leisure, nor inclination, to contemplate 
their character as a portion of the human family, 
while the glare of conflagration reddened the mid- 



6 

night sky, and the yells of the savage, mingling with 
the shrieks of butchered victims, rode, as portentous 
messengers, upon every gale. But that state of 
things has long ceased to exist. The white men of 
America have become too numerous, to fear any 
longer the effects of savage barbarity ; and the tales, 
which once carried terror to the stoutest heart, are 
now scarcely heard beyond the precincts of the nur- 
sery. In the room of fear, should now arise a senti- 
ment of pity. " The red men are melting," to borrow 
the expressive metaphor of one of their most celebra- 
ted warriors* — " like snow before the sun ;" and we 
should be anxious, before it is too late, to copy the 
evanescent features of their character, and perpetuate 
them on the page of history. 

But when fear ceases, contempt is a natural con- 
sequence. The Indian, whose character was once 
so lofty and independent, is now seen begging at 
our doors for the price of his perdition ; and, as our 
foot spurns the suppliant, we are apt to think, that 
nothing, connected with one so vile, can be worthy 
of our attention. But is it fair to judge from so 
vitiated a specimen ? When a race of men are 
mingled with others, who consider them as inferiors, 
they inevitably become so. Submission to contempt, 
is an acknowledgment of its justice. If, therefore, the 

"• The noted Miami Chief Mishikinakwa, or Little Turtle, who contributed 
most to the defeat of St. Clair. See Volney's View of the soil and climate of 
the United States. Supplement, No. VI. Philad. 1S04, p. 385. 



Indian would avoid degradation, he must retire from 
the habitations of white men ; and if we wish to see 
him in his original character, we must follow him to 
his native forests.— There, surely, he is worthy of our 
attention. The lovers of the physical sciences, ex- 
plore the woods of America, to cull her plants, and to 
investigate the habits of her animals. Shall not the 
lovers of the moral sciences, be equally ardent and 
industrious ? Shall man, who stands at the summit 
of earthly creation, be forgotten, amid the general 
scrutiny ? 

The sources of prejudice which I have mention- 
ed, influence the examination of every subject, con- 
nected with the Indian character : there are peculiar 
difficulties, with regard to that on which I have 
chosen to address you. 

The Indians themselves are not communicative in 
relation to their religion ; and it requires a good deal 
of familiar, attentive, and I may add, unsuspected 
observation, to obtain any knowledge respecting it. 
Hence, many who have been transiently resident 
among them, have very confidently pronounced, that 
they have no religion ; an assertion, which subse- 
quent and more accurate travellers, have shown to 
be entirely unfounded.* 

Those, also, on whom we rely for information, 
have either been too little informed to know what 
to observe, or they have been influenced by peculiar 

Note A 



8 

modes of thinking, which have given a tinge to all 
they have said on the subject. 

The various speculations, for example, on the 
question, whence America was peopled, led to many 
misrepresentations of the religious rites of its inhabi- 
tants ; and affinities were discovered which existed 
no where but in the fancy of the inventor. Gomara, 
Lerius, and Lescarbot, inferred from some resem- 
blances of this kind, that America was peopled by 
the Canaanites when they were expelled by Joshua ; 
and the celebrated Grotius, adopting the sentiment 
of Martyr, imagined that Yucatan was first peopled 
by Ethiopians, and that those Ethiopians were 
Christians !* 

The human mind derives pleasure from paradox, 
for the same reason that it delights in wit. Both 
produce new and surprising combinations of thought; 
and the judgment, being overpowered by the fervours 
of imagination, becomes for a time insensible to their 
extravagance. 

It is well known, that, among the philosophers of 
Europe, the opinion has very generally prevailed, 
that the natives of America were, both as to physi- 
cal and mental powers, a feeble race ; and, impress- 
ed with this belief, they hardly considered the reli- 
gion of the Indians as worthy of minute attention. 
The celebrated historian of America, has uncon- 
sciously fallen into this error, at the very moment in 



which he was censuring others, for suffering their re- 
lation of facts to be perverted, by an attachment to 
preconceived theories.* 

Volney, in opposition to the sentiments of Rousseau, 
has endeavoured to sink the character of the savage, 
in the same proportion as that eccentric author sought 
to raise it. On the subject of the Indian religion 
especially, no one should be read with greater cau- 
tion. He who could imagine that Christianity was 
only an astronomical allegory, and that the birth of 
our Saviour meant no more than that the sun had 
entered the constellation Virgo, can hardly be con- 
sidered as perfectly sane, even when he treats on the 
religion of Heathens. t We need not be surprised, 
therefore, at the assertion, that the Indians have no 
regular system of religion ; that each one employs 
the liberty allowed him of making a religion for 
himself ; and that all the worship they know is of- 
fered to the authors of evil. J Never was there an 

* See Robertson's America, book iv. §. vii. 

t See Les Ruines, ou Meditations sur les Revolutions des Empires, par 
M. Volney. NouveUe edition, corrigie, Paris, 1792, Svo. chap. 22. p. 1S5. 
221-4. In this work, Volney had the hardihood to maintain, not only that 
our Saviour was an allegorical personage, but that all religions, Heathen, 
Mahometan, and Jewish, as well as Christian, are in substance the same ; 
that all have arisen from a literal interpretation of the figurative language of 
astronomers ; and that the very idea of a God, sprung from a personification 
of the elements, and of the physical powers of the universe. At the sight of 
this monstrous creation of a disordered fancy, one cannot help exclaiming 
with Stillinglleet, " Oh what will not Atheists believe, rather than a Deity 
and Providence." 

i Volney's View of the United States, ut snpr. trans, by Brown, p. 41ir 

2 



10 

assertion more unfounded ; but it enabled him to 
quote that maxim of the Epicniean poet, which is 
so frequently in the mouths of unbelievers, that all 
religion originated in fear : 

Primos in orbe Deos fecit timor. 

On the other hand, an hypothesis has somewhat 
extensively prevailed, which exalts the religion of 
the Indians as much above its proper level, as Vol- 
ney has debased it below ; I mean that, which sup- 
poses them to be the descendants of the ten tribes of 
Israel. This theory so possessed the mind of Adair, 
that, although he had the greatest opportunities of 
obtaining knowledge, his book is, comparatively, of 
little use. We are constantly led to suspect the 
fidelity of his statements, because his judgment had 
lost its equipoise, and he saw every thing through a 
discoloured medium. I feel myself bound to notice 
this hypothesis the more, because it has lately been 
revived and brought before the public, by a venera- 
ble member of this society, whose exalted character 
renders every opinion he may defend a subject of re- 
spectful attention.* 

To the mind of every religious man, the history of 
the Hebrews is a subject of peculiar interest ; and it 
is impossible to read of the extermination of the 

* See Dr. Boudinot's Star in the West, or a humble attempt to discover 
the long-lost ten tribes of Israel, preparatory to their return to their beloved 
fity Jerusalem. Trenton, (N. J.) 1S16. 8vo. 



11 

kingdom of Israel, without a feeling of compassion 
for the captives, who were thus torn from the land 
of their prerogative. The impenetrable darkness 
which hangs over their subsequent history, combines 
with this sentiment of pity, the powerful excitement 
of curiosity. It is not, then, to be wondered at, that 
When the disquisitions arose respecting the peopling 
of America, the idea of tracing to these western 
shores the long-lost tribes of Israel, should also have 
arisen before the eye of imagination with captivating 
splendour ; that the thought should have been seized 
with avidity by men who were pious, and ardent, 
and contemplative ; and that, in the establishment 
of a theory which every one could wish to be true, 
facts should be strained from their natural bent, and 
resemblances imagined, which have no existence in 
reality. 

The most unequivocal method of tracing the origin 
of the aborigines of America, as Charlevoix has 
sensibly remarked, is to ascertain the character of 
their languages, and to compare them with the pri- 
mitive languages of the eastern hemisphere.* 

But this test will, I conceive, be found very fatal 
to the theory in question. The best informed wri- 
ters agree, that there are, exclusive of the Karalit or 
Esquimaux, three radical languages spoken by the 

* Charlevoix's Dissertation sur l'origine des Ameriquains, prefixed to his 
Journal d'un voyage dans I'Amcr. Scptent. — Hist, de la nouvelle France, 
torn. iii. p. 36. 



12 

Indians of North America.* Mr. Heckewelder de- 
nominates them the Iroquois, the Lenape, and the 
Floridian. The Iroquois is spoken by the six na- 
tions, the Wyandots or Hurons, the Naudowessies, 
the Assiniboils, and other tribes beyond the St. Law- 
rence. The Lenape, which is the most widely ex- 
tended language on this side of the Mississippi, was 
spoken by the tribes, now extinct, who formerly in- 
habited Nova-Scotia and the present state of Maine, 
the Abenakis, Micmacs, Canibas, Openangos, Soc- 
cokis, Etchemins, and Souriquois : dialects of it 
are now spoken by the Miamis, the Potawotamies, 
Missisaugoes, and Kickapoos ; the Conestogos, Nan- 
{ icokes, Shawanese, and Mohicans ; the Algonquins, 
Knisteneaux, and Chippeways. The Floridian in- 
cludes the languages of the Creeks or Muskohgees, 
Chickesaws, Choctaws, Pascagoulas, Cherokees, 
Seminoles, and several others in the Southern states 
and Florida.f These three languages are primitive, 
that is to say, are so distinct as to have no perceiva- 
ble affinity. All, therefore, cannot be derived from 
the Hebrew ; for it is a contradiction in terms, to 
speak of three languages radically different, as de- 

* See Note C. 

t Transactions of the Historical and Literary Committee of the American 
Philosophical Society, held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge 
Vol.i. Philad. 1819, 8vo. No. I. An account of the history, manners, and 
customs, of the Indian nations who once inhabited Pennsylvania, and the 
neighbouring states. By the Rev. John Heckewelder, of Bethlehem. Chap 
is. p. 104. 



13 

rived from a common source.* Which then, we, 
may well ask, is to be selected as the posterity of the 
Israelites : the Iroquois, the Lenape, or the southern 
Indians ? 

Besides, there is one striking peculiarity in the 
construction of American languages, which has no 
counterpart in the Hebrew. Instead of the ordinary 
division of genders, they divide into the animate and 
inanimate. It is impossible to conceive that any 
nation, in whatever circumstances they might be 
placed, could depart, in so remarkable a manner, 
from the idioms of their native language.f 

But supposing that there were some affinity in 
any one of the languages of North America to the 
Hebrew, still it would not prove that the persons 
who speak it are of Hebrew descent. The Arabic 
and the Amharic have very strong affinities with the- 
Hebrew : but does it thence follow that the Arabs 
and Abyssinians are Hebrews? Admitting, there- 
fore, the fact of this affinity, in its fullest extent, the 
only legitimate inference would be, that the langua- 
ges of America are of oriental derivation, and, con- 
sequently, that America was peopled from Asia. 

To pursue this subject further, would occupy too 
much time upon a point which is merely subsidiary-! 
But I cannot forbear remarking, that, while the na- 
tion of Israel has been wonderfully preserved, the 

a See Note D. t See Note E t See Note F. 



14 

Indians are nearly exterminated. The nation of 
Israel will hereafter be restored to the land of their 
forefathers ; but this event must speedily arrive, or 
the unhappy tribes of America can have no part in 
it. A few years more, and they will be beyond the 
capability of migration ! 

The question, then, with regard to the immediate 
origin of the American Indians, must remain in the 
uncertainty which hangs over it. Nothing but a 
more extensive knowledge of the languages of this 
continent, of those of Northern Asia, and of the 
Islands in the Southern Pacific, can throw any ad- 
ditional light upon a problem, which has so long 
exercised, and so completely exhausted, the inge- 
nuity of conjecture. Their religion furnishes no 
assistance in the solution, for it cannot be identified 
with that of any particular nation, in any other por- 
tion of the globe ; and though resemblances, and 
those very strong and striking, can be traced, yet 
they are such as are common to the great family of 
man, and prove nothing but that all have one com- 
mon origin. 

It will be readily seen, however, that this proof is 
of vast importance. If the religion of the Indians 
exhibits traces of that primeval religion which was 
of divine appointment ; if the debasement of it was 
owing, as among all other nations, to the concurrent 
operation of human ignorance, weakness, and cor- 
ruption ; and if its rites, and even its superstitious 



15 

observances, boar that analogy to those of the old 
world, vvhich must exist where all have flowed from 
one source : then all that is really useful in the ques- 
tion respecting the origin of the inhabitants of this 
continent will be fully obtained. There will be no 
anomaly in the history of human nature ; and the 
assertion of Voltaire will be found to be as false as 
it is flippant, that the Americans are a race entirely 
dirTerent from other men, and that they have sprung 
into existence like plants and insects." 

* " II n'est permis qn'a un aveugle de douter que les Blancs, les Negres, 
les Albinos, les Hottentots, les Lapoiis, les Chinois, les Americains soient 
des races entierement diffcrentes." Voltaire Gluvres, vol. 16. p. 8. 

" Au reste si Ton demande d'ou sont venus les Americains, il faut aussi 
demander d'ou sont venus les habitants des terres Australes ; et Ton a deja 
repondu que la providence qui a mis des homines dans le Norvege, en a 
plante aussi en Amerique et sousle cercle polaire meridional, comme elle y 
a plante des arbres et fait croitre de Pherbe." Ibid, p. 10. 

" Se peut-il qu'on demande encore d'ou sent venus les hommes qui out 
peuplc I' Amerique ? On doit assurementfaire la mime (juestion sur les na- 
tions des Terres Australes. Elles sont beaucoup plus eloignees du port dont 
partit Christopbe Colomb, que ne le sont les iles Antilles. Onatrouvedes 
homines et des animaux partout ou la terre est habitable ; qui les y a mis ? 
On a deja dit; C'est celui qui fait croitre l'herbe des champs : et on ne de- 
vait pas ("ire plus surpris de trouver en Amirique des hommes que des 
mouches." lb. p. 37. 

How much pains did this extraordinary man take, to degrade that nature of 
which lie was at once the ornament and the shame ! No one can read the 
writings of Voltaire, without a feeling of admiration at the wonderful versa- 
tility of his talents. No one can help being amused, and having his mind 
drawn along, by the powers of his excursive fancy. Bui with all this, there is, 
to every serious and sensitive mind ; a feeling of disgust and shrinking ab- 
horrence. By associating ludicrous images with subjects which have been 
hallowed by the veneration of ages, he has the address to impart to them 
that ridicule which properly belongs only to the company in which he has 



16 

Previous to the dispersion of the descendants of 
Noah, ihe knowledge of the true God, of the wor- 
ship which he required from his creatures, and of 
the sanctions with which he enforced his commands, 
must have been common to all. It is impossible to 
conceive of any distinction where all were equally 
related to him, and possessed equal means of instruc- 
tion and knowledge. In a word, the whole of man- 
kind formed one universal church, having the same 
faith and the same worship. 

How long this purity continued we know not, 
nor when, nor where, idolatry was first introduced. 
That it began, however, at a very early period, we 
have the strongest evidence ; for Terah, the father 
of Abraham, was an idolater, notwithstanding the 
precepts and example of Noah, both of which, for 
more than a hundred years, hs personally enjoyed. 
We may account for it from that tendency in our 
nature which seeks to contract every thing within 
the compass of our understanding, and to subject it, 
if possible, to the scrutiny of our senses. A Being 
purely spiritual, omniscient and omnipotent, is above 
our comprehension, and we seek, by the multiplica- 
tion of subordinate deities, to account for the opera- 
placed them. Hence, his writings have done more injury to truth, and to 
human happiness, than those of any other modern — perhaps I may add, 
of any other being. The thoughtless and the timid have been frightened 
out of their good principles by his caustic sarcasm, while to the rashly 
bold and ignorantly daring, the eyes of the judgment have been blinded by 
'ihe coruscations of his wit. 



17 

tions of his power. When this is done, the imagina- 
tion feels itself at liberty to clothe them with corpo- 
real forms : and from this idea, the transition is not 
difficult, to the formation of idols, and the introduc- 
tion of idolatry. 

But notwithstanding this departure from primeval 
purity, the religion of mankind did not at once lose 
all its original brightness. It was still the form of 
the archangel ruined. It did not reject the worship 
of the true God, but seems only to have absurdly 
combined with it the worship of inferior divinities. 
When Abraham sojourned at Gerar, the king of that 
country had evidently communications with the Al- 
mighty ; and the testimony which God gave of the 
integrity of his character, and his submission to the 
divine admonition, clearly prove that he was a true 
believer.* 

At a subsecpient period, when Isaac lived 
in the same country, the king, a descendant of 
the former monarch, requested that a covenant of 
friendship should be made between them, because, 
as he observed, Isaac was the blessed of Jehovah.f 
" This," as Bishop Horsley remarks, " is the lan- 
guage of one who feared Jehovah, and acknowledged 
his providence."J 

When Joseph was brought before the King of 

« Gen. xx. 3, 4, 5, 6. See also xxi. 22, 23. t Gen. xxvi. 28, 29. 

t Horsley's Dissertation on the Prophecies of the Messiah, dispersed 
among the Heathen, prefixed to Nine Serin, p. 41. New-York. lSltf. 8vn. f 

3 



18 

Egypt, botli speak of God as if they had the same 
faith, and the same trust in his overruling provi- 
dence.* 

Even at so late a period as when the Israelites 
entered Canaan, the spies of Joshua found a woman 
of Jericho, who confessed that i; Jehovah, the God 
of Israel, he is God in Heaven above, and in the earth 
beneath. "f 

The book of Job presents an interesting view of 
the patriarchal religion as it existed in Arabia ; and, 
it will be remembered that, in Mesopotamia, Balaam 
was a prophet of tin 1 Most High. 

These instances are sufficient to show how exten- 
sively the worship of the true God prevailed, and 
that it had not become extinct even when the chil- 
dren oi' Israel took possession of the land of promise, 
and became the peculiar people of Jehovah. That 
it was blended, however, with the worship of infe- 
rior divinities, represented in idolatrous forms, is 
equally apparent from the sacred history. 

When the servant of Abraham had disclosed to 
the family oi' Nahor the purpose of his mission, 
both Laban and Bethuel replied: u The thing pro- 
ceedeth from Jehovah ; we cannot speak unto thee 
bad or good."J This reply was an evidence oi' their 
faith in the tine God; yet it afterwards appears that 

the same Laban had images which he called his 
t luils, and w Inch were regarded w iih veneration, and 

• <;-•„ \]\ 25.32 38,39 f Joab.ti. v M ' Gen kit 80 



19 

greativ valued by himself and his children.* I poii 
thr i - ob's departure to Bethel, he eom- 

s bold to •• put a way the - 
Gods g them.*' These Gods mu>t 

been numerous : for it is mentioned that •• 
unto Jacob all the strange Gods which were 
in their hand, and he hid them under the oak by 
-iri.i.- Even the chosen family, therefore, was 
xempt from the infection of idolatry. 
But this was idolatry in its milder form. Tin 

n 

fact _ sbm aod more malignant s\ i I.. 

worship of the urns at length 

is usurp. 
and a general apostacy preva: 




- 

Tht . _ 

nations on : robate mind."i and to >-_ 

: 

■ 






20 

a peculiar people, to be a signal example of his pro- 
vidence, the witness of his wonders, and the guar- 
dian of that revelation with which he sought to 
check the waywardness of human corruption. 

I. Having thus seen that all false religions are, in a 
greater or loss degree, departures from the true ; that 
there is a tendency in the human mind, to form low 
and limited views of the Supreme Being ; and that, 
in fact, all nations have fallen into the corruptions of 
polytheism and idolatry ; we should conclude, even 
in reasoning a priori, that the religion of the Indians 
would be found to partake of the general character. 
Accordingly, the fact is amply attested, that while 
they acknowledge One Supreme Being, whom they 
denominate the Great Spirit, or the Master of Life, 
they also believe in Subordinate Divinities, who have 
the chief regulation of the affairs of men. 

Charlevoix,, who had all the opportunities of ob- 
taining information which personal observation, and 
the united testimony of the French missionaries 
could give, is an unexceptionable witness with re- 
gard to the Hurons, the Iroquois, and the Algon- 
quins. Nothing, says he, is more certain, though 
at the same time obscure, than the conception which 
the American savages have of a Supreme Being. 
All agree that he is the Great Spirit, and that he is 
the master, creator, and governor of the world.* 

■ Charlevoix, Journal, fcc. let. xxiv. p. 343. 



21 

The Hurons call him Areskoui ; the Iroquois, by a 
slight variation, Agreskoue. He is, with them, the 
God of war. His name they invoke as they march. 
It is the signal to engage, and it is the war-cry in the 
hottest of the battle.* 

But, beside the Supreme Being, they believe in 
an infinite number of subaltern spirits, who are the 
objects of worship. These they divide into good 
and bad. The good spirits are called, by the Hu- 
rons, Okkis, by the Algonquins, Manitous, They 
suppose them to be the guardians of men, and that 
each has his own tutelary deity .f In fact, every thing 
in nature has its spirit, though all have not the same 
rank nor the same influence. The animals they 
hunt have their spirits. If they do not understand 



* Charlevoix, Journal, kc. let. xxiv. p. 344. " II paroit que dans 
ces chansons (tie guerre) on invoque le Dieu de la guerre, que les Hurons 
appellent ,1resl:oui, et les Iroquois Jlgrcskoui. Je ne scjai pas quel nom on 
lui donrie dans les langues Algonquiues. Mais n'est il pas un peuetonnant 
que dans le mot Grec A/>«c, qui est le Mars, et le Dieu de la guerre dans tous 
les pays, on Ion a suivi la Theologie d'Homere, on trouvc la racine d'ou 
semblent deriver plusieurs ternies de la langue Huronne et lroquoise,qui ont 
rapport a la guerre ? Aregouen signifie, fair'e la guerre, et se conjugue ainsi : 
Garego, je fais la guerre ; Surcgo, tu fais la guerre ; Arego, il fait la guerre. 
Au reste, Areskoui n'est pas seulement le Mars de ces penples; il est encore le 
Souverain des Dieux,ou, comme ils s'expriment, le Grand Esprit, le Createur 
et le Maitre du Monde, le Genie qui gouvernc tout : mais e'est principale- 
meiit pour les expeditions militaires, qu'on 1'invoque, comme si la qualite, 
qui lui fait le plus d'homieur utoit celle de Dieu des armees. Son nom est le 
cri de guerre avant le combat, et au fort dc la mSlie : dans les marches m£me 
on le n'pete souvent, comme pour s'encourager, et pour implorcr son assistance." 
Ibid, p. 208. 

t See Note G. 



22 

any thing, they immediately say, It is a spirit. If 
any man performs a remarkable exploit, or exhibits 
extraordinary talents, he is said to be a spirit, or, in 
other words, his tutelary deity is supposed to be of 
more than ordinary power.* 

It is remarkable, however, that these tutelary 
deities are not supposed to take men under their pro- 
tection till something has been done to merit the 
favour. A parent who wishes to obtain a guardian 
spirit for his child, first blackens his face, and then 
causes him to fast for several days.f During this 
time it is expected that the spirit will reveal himself 
in a dream ; and on this account, the child is 
anxiously examined every morning with regard to 
the visions of the preceding night. Whatever the 
child happens to dream of the most frequently, even 
if it happen to be the head of a bird, the foot of an 
animal, or any thing of the most worthless nature, 
becomes the symbol or figure under which the Okki 
reveals himself. With this figure, in the concep- 
tions of his votary, the spirit becomes identified ; 
the image is preserved with the greatest care — is the 
constant companion on all great and important occa- 
sions, and the constant object of consultation and 

worship.! 

As soon as a child is informed what is the nature 

4 Charlevoix, Journal, Sic. let. xxiv. p. 345-6. [See Note H.] 

t See Note I. 

; Charlevoix, ut supr. p. 346. 



23 

or form of his protecting deity, he is carefully in- 
structed in the obligations he is under to do him 
homage — to follow his advice communicated in 
dreams — to deserve his favours — to confide implicitly 
in his care — and to dread the consequences of his 
displeasure. For this reason, when the Huron or 
the Iroquois goes to battle or to the chase, the image 
of his okki is as carefully carried with him as his 
arms.* At night, each one places his guardian idol 
on the palisades surrounding the camp, with the 
face turned from the quarter to which the warriors, 
or hunters, are about to march. He then prays to it 
for an hour, as he does also in the morning before he 
continues his course. This homage performed, he 
lies down to rest, and sleeps in tranquillity, fully 
persuaded that his spirit will assume the whole duty 
of keeping guard, and that he has nothing to fear.f 



* See Note K. 

t " Mais ce que l'on oublieroit encore moiiis qne les armes, et ce que Ton 
consent avec le plus grand soin dont les sauvages sont capables, ce sont les 
Manilous. Jen parleraiailleurs plus amplement : il suffit ici de dire que ce 
sont les symboles, sou9 lesquels chacun se represente son esprit familier. On 
les met tous dans un sac fait de Jones, et peint de difl'erentes couleurs ; et sou- 
vent, pour faire honneur au chef, on place ce sac sur le devant de son canot. 
S'il y atrop de Manitous pour tenir dansun seul sac, on les distribue dans 
plusieuis, qui sont confies a la garde da lieutenant et des anciens de chaque 
famille. Alors on y joint les presens, qui out ete faits pour avoir des prison- 
niers, avec les langues de tous les animaux, qu'on a tuts pendant la campaene, 
et doat on doit faire au relour un sacrifice aux esprils." Charlevoix, Journal, 
p. -111. 

" On campe lontems avant le soled conche, et pour 1'ordinaire on laisse 
dcvautle camp un grand espace environne dune palissade, ou pKktot diine 



24 

With this account of Charlevoix, the relations 
which the Moravian missionaries give, not only of 
the Iroquois, but also of the Lenapes, or Delawares, 
and the numerous tribes derived from them, per- 
fectly accord. " The prevailing opinion of all these 
nations is," says Loskiel, " that there is one God, 
or, as they call him, one great and good Spirit, who 
has created the heavens and the earth, and made 
man and every other creature." But "beside the 
Supreme Being, they believe in good and evil spirits, 
considering them as subordinate deities." " Our 
missionaries have not found rank polytheism, or 
gross idolatry, to exist among the Indians. They 
have, however, something which may be called an 
idol.* This is the Manitto, representing, in wood, 
the head of a man in miniature, which they always 
carry about them, either on a string round their 
neck, or in a bag. They hang it also about their 
children, to preserve them from illness, and ensure 
to them success. When they perform a solemn 
sacrifice, a manitto, or a head as large as life, is put 
upon a pole in the middle of the house. But they 
understand by the word manitto, every being to 
which an offering is made, especially all good 

espece de treillis, sur Ipqnel on place les Manitous tournes du cote, ou Ton 
veut aller. On les y invoque pendant uneheure,etonenfaitautanttousles 
tKctlins, avant que de dicamper. Aprcs ceJa on croit n'acoir rien a craindre, on 
suppose que les esjirils se chargent de faire seals la sentinelle, et loute I'armct 
dor! tranquUlemenl sous leur sauve-gardt." Ibid, p. 23(5. 
* See Note L 



25 

spirits. They also look upon the elements, almost 
all animals, and even some plants, as spirits, one 
exceeding the other in dignity and power. The 
manittoes are also considered as tutelar spirits. 
Every Indian has one or more, which he conceives 
to be peculiarly given to assist him and make him 
prosper. One has, in a dream, received the sun as 
his tutelar spirit, another the moon ; a third, an owl ; 
a fourth, a buffalo. An Indian is dispirited, and 
considers himself as forsaken by God, till he has re- 
ceived a tutelar spirit in a dream ; but those who 
have been thus favoured, are full of courage, and 
proud of their powerful ally.* 

This account is corroborated by Heckewelder in 
his late interesting history of the Indian nations. 

" It is a part of their religious belief," says he, 
11 that there are inferior manittos, to whom the 
great and good Being has given the rule and com- 
mand over the elements ; that being so great, he, 
like their chiefs, must have his attendants to exe- 
cute his supreme behests ; these subordinate spirits 
(something in their nature between God and manj 
see and report to him what is doing upon earth ; 
they look down particularly upon the Indians, to 
see whether they are in need of assistance, and are 
ready at their call to assist and protect them against 
danger. Thus I have frequently witnessed Indians, 

* Loskiel, parti, chap.iii. p. 34, 35. 39, 40. Lond. 1794. 

4 



26 

on the approach of a storm or thunder gust, address 
the manitto of the air to avert all danger from them : 
I have also seen the Chippeways, on the lakes of 
Canada, pray to the manitto of the waters, that he 
might prevent the swells from rising too high, while 
they were passing over them. In both these instan- 
ces, they expressed their acknowledgment, or 
showed their willingness to be grateful, by throwing 
tobacco in the air, or strewing it on the waters."* — 
" But amidst all these superstitious notions, the Su- 
preme Manitto, the creator and preserver of heaven 
and earth, is the great object of their adoration. On 
him they rest their hopes — to him they address their 
prayers, and make their solemn sacrifices."! 

The Knistineaux Indians, who inhabit the country 
extending from Labrador, across the continent, to 
the Highlands which divide the waters on Lake 
Superior from those of Hudson's Bay, appear, from 
Mackenzie's account, to have the same system, ef 
one great Supreme, and innumerable subordinate 
deities. " The Great Master of Life," to use their 
own expression, "is the sacred object of their devo- 
tion. But each man carries in his medicine bag a 
kind of household God, which is a small carved 
image about eight inches long. Its first covering is 
of down, over which a piece of beech bark is closely 
tied, and the whole is enveloped in several folds of 

* See Note M. t Heckewelder, p. 205, 6 



27 

red and blue cloth. This little figure is an object of 
the most pious regard."* 

It is remarkable, that the description given by 
Peter Martyr, who was the companion of Columbus, 
of the worship of the inhabitants of Cuba, perfectly 
agrees with this account of the Northern Indians by 
Mackenzie. They believed in the existence of one 
supreme, invisible, immortal, and omnipotent crea- 
tor, whom they named Jocahuna, but at the same 
time acknowledged a plurality of subordinate deities. 
They had little images called Zemes, whom they 
looked upon as only a kind of messengers between 
them and the eternal, omnipotent, and invisible God. 
These images they considered as bodies inhabited 
by spirits, and oracular responses were therefore 
received from them as uttered by the divine com- 
mand.! 

The religion of Porto Rico, Jamaica, and His- 
paniola, was the same as that of Cuba ; for the in- 
habitants were of the same race, and spoke the same 
language. The Carribean Islands, on the other 
hand, were inhabited by a very fierce and savage 
people, who were continually at war with the milder 
natives of Cuba and Hispaniola, and were regarded 



■ Mackenzie's Voyages from Montreal, on the river St. Lawrence, through 
the continent of North America, to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans, in the 
years 1789 and 1793. Lond. 1801. 4to. p. ci. cii. 8vo. 1902. vol. i. p. 124. 

t Pet. Mart, decad i. lib. ix. apud StilliHgfleet's Origines Sacro*, vol. 2. p. 
360. and Edwards' West-Indies, vol. i. p 83. [See Note N ] 



28 

by them with the utmost terror and abhorrence. 
Yet " the Charaibes," to use the language of the 
elegant historian of the West Indies, " while they 
entertained an awful sense of one great Universal 
Cause, of a superior, wise, and invisible Being of ab- 
solute and irresistible power, admitted also the 
agency of subordinate divinities. They supposed 
that each individual person had his peculiar protector 
or tutelary deity ; and they had their lares and pe- 
nates, gods of their own creating." " Hughes, in his 
History of Barbadoes, mentions many fragments of 
Indian idols, dug up in that island, which were com- 
posed of the same materials as their earthen vessels. 
'I saw the head of one,' says he, ' which alone 
weighed above sixty pounds. This, before it was 
broken off, stood upon an oval pedestal, about three 
feet in height. The heads of all the others were 
very small. These lesser idols were, in all proba- 
bility, made small for the ease and conveniency of 
being carried with them in their several journeys, as 
the larger sort were perhaps designed for some sta- 
ted places of worship.' "* 

Thus, in this vast extent of country, from Hud- 
son's Bay to the West Indies, including nations 
whose languages are radically different, nations un- 
connected with, and unknown to, each other, the 
greatest uniformity of belief prevails with regard te 

" Edwards, vol. i. p. 48-9. and Hughes, p. 7. apud Edwards ut. sup. 



29 

the Supreme Being, and the greatest harmony in 
their system of polytheism. After this view, it is 
impossible not to remark, that there is a smaller de- 
parture from the original religion among the Indians 
of America, than among the more civilized nations 
of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The idea of the 
Divine Unity is much more perfectly preserved ; the 
subordinate divinities are kept at a much more im- 
measurable distance from the Great Spirit ; and, 
above all, there has been no attempt among them to 
degrade to the likeness of men, the invisible and in- 
comprehensible Creator of the universe. In fact, 
theirs is exactly that milder form of idolatry which 
' ; prevailed every where from the days of Abraham, 
his single family excepted," and which, after the 
death of that patriarch and of his son Isaac, infected, 
from time to time, even the chosen family itself.* 

II. The belief of a future state of rewards and 
punishments has been kept alive among all heathen 
nations, by its connexion with the sensible enjoy- 
ments and sufferings, and the consequent hopes and 
terrors of men. 

Its origin must have been in divine revelation ; for 
it is impossible to conceive that the mind could have 
attained to it by its own unassisted powers. Bui 
the thought, when once communicated, would, in the 
shipwreck of dissolving nature, be clung to with the 

■ Horsley's Dissertation, nt supr. p. 47. 



30 

grasp of expiring hope. Hence no nations have yet 
been found, however rude and barbarous, who have 
not agieed in the great and general principle of retri- 
butive immortality. When, however, we descend 
to detail, and inquire into their peculiar notions with 
regard to this expected state, we find that their tra- 
ditions are coloured by the nature of their earthly 
occupations, and the opinions they thence entertain 
on the subject of good and evil. 

This remark is fully verified by the history of the 
American Indians. " The belief most firmly esta- 
blished among the American savages," says Charle- 
voix, " is that of the immortality of the soul.* They 
suppose, that when separated from the body, it pre- 
serves the same inclinations which it had when both 
were united. For this reason, they bury with the 
dead all that they had in use when alive. Some 
imagine that all men have two souls, one of which 
never leaves the body unless it be to inhabit ano- 
ther. This transmigration, however, is peculiar to 
the souls of those who die in infancy, and who 
therefore have the privilege of commencing a se- 
cond life, because they enjoyed so little of the first. 
Hence children are buried along the highways, that 
the women, as they pass, may receive their souls. 
From this idea of their remaining with the body, 
arises the duty of placing food upon their graves ;f 
and mothers have been seen to draw from their 

* See Note 0. t Journal Historique, p. 351. [See Note P.] 



31 

bosoms that nourishment which these little crea- 
tures loved when alive, and shed it upon the earth 
which covered their remains."* 

" When the time has arrived for the departure of 
those spirits which leave the body, they pass into a 
region which is destined to be their eternal abode, 
and which is therefore called the Country of Souls. 
This country is at a great distance toward the west, 
and to go thither costs them a journey of many 
months. They have many difficulties to surmount, 
and many perils to encounter. They speak of a 
stream in which many suffer shipwreck ; — of a dog 
from which they, with difficulty, defend them- 
selves ; — of a place of suffering where they expiate 
their faults ; — of another in which the souls of those 
prisoners who have been tortured are again tor- 
mented, and who therefore linger on their course, 
to delay as long as possible the moment of their 
arrival. From this idea it proceeds, that after the 
death of these unhappy victims, for fear their souls 
may remain around the huts of their tormentors from 
the thirst of vengeance, the latter are careful to 

* " On a vft des meres garder des ann6es entiores les cadavres de leurs en- 
fans, et ne pouvoir s'en eloigner ; et d'autres se tirer du lait dc la mamelle, 
et le repandre sur la tombe de ces petites creatures. Si le feu prend a ua 
village, ou il y ait des corps morts, c'est la premiere chose qu'on met en 
surete on se depouille de ce qu'on a de plus precieux, pour en parer Ie3 
dcfunts : de terns en tems on d6couvre leurs cercueils pour les changer d'ha- 
bits, et Ton s'arrache les niorceaux de la bouche, pour les porter sur leur 
sepulture, et dans les lieux, ou Ton s'imagine que leurs ames se promeneut." 
Charlevoix, Journal, ut supr. p, 372-3. 



32 

strike every place around them with a staff, and to 
utter such terrible cries as may oblige them to de- 
part."* 

To be put to death as a captive is, therefore, an 
exclusion from the Indian paradise ; and, indeed, 
"the souls of all who have died a violent death, 
even in war, and in the service of their country, are 
supposed to have no intercourse in the future world 
with other souls.f They therefore burn the bodies 
of such persons, or bury them, sometimes before they 
have expired. They are never put into the common 
place of interment, and they have no part in that 
solemn ceremony which the Hurons and the Iroquois 
observe every ten years, and other nations every 
eight, of depositing all who have died during that 
period in a common place of sepulture."! 

To have been a good hunter, brave in war, fortu- 
nate in every enterprise, and victorious over many 
enemies, are the only titles to enter their abode of 
bliss. The happiness of it consists in the never-fail- 
ing supply of game and fish, an eternal spring, and 
an abundance of every thing which can delight the 

* Journal Historique, ut supr. p. 352. [See Note Q.] 

t How different from the opinions of the Scandinavian Nations, from 
whose paradise all were excluded who ignobly died in the common 
course of nature. None were admitted to the Hall of Odin but those who 
had fallen in battle. 

i Charlevoix, Journal Hist. p. 376-7. This ceremony is called the feast 
of the dead, or of souls, and is described very minutely by Charlevoix, who 
calls it w Taction la plus singuliere et la plus cclcbre de toute la religion des 
sauvages." 



33 

senses without the labour of procuring it."* Such 
are the pleasures which they anticipate who often 
return weary and hungry from the chase, who are 
often exposed to the inclemencies of a wintry sky, 
and who look upon all labour as an unmanly and 
degrading employment. 

The Chepewyans live between the parallels of lat. 
60 and 65 north, a region of almost perpetual snows ; 
where the ground never thaws, and is so barren as 
to produce nothing but moss.f 

To them, therefore, perpetual verdure and fer- 
tility, and waters unincumbered with ice, are volup- 
tuous images. Hence they imagine that, after death, 
they shall inhabit a most beautiful island in the 
centre of an extensive lake. On the surface of this 
lake they will embark in a stone canoe, and if their 
actions have been generally good, will be borne by 
a gentle current to their delightful and eternal abode. 
But if, on the contrary, their bad actions predominate. 
" the stone canoe sinks, and leaves them up to their 
chins in the water, to behold and regret the reward 
enjoyed by the good, and eternally struggling, but 
with unavailing endeavours, to reach the blissful 
island, from which they are excluded for ever."! 

On the other hand, the Arrowauks, or natives of 



Charlev. ut supr. p. 332-3. 
t Mackenzie, 8vo. vol. I. p. 155. 1ST. 

| Mackenzie, ut sup. General History of the Fi u 'Tpade, 4to. p. CIUL 8ro. 
vol i. p. 145, 6. 

5 



34 

Cuba, Hispaniola, Porto Rico, Jamaica and Trini- 
dad, would naturally place their enjoyments in 
every thing that was opposite to the violence of a 
tropical climate. " They supposed, therefore, that 
the spirits of good men were conveyed to the plea- 
sant valley of Coyaba; a place of indolent tranquillity, 
abounding with guavas and other delicious fruits, 
cool shades, and murmuring rivulets ; in a country 
where drought never rages, and the hurricane is 
never felt."* 

While these voluptuous people made the happi- 
ness of the Future State to consist in these tranquil 
enjoyments, their fierce enemies, the Charaibes, 
looked forward to a paradise, in which the brave 
would be attended by their wives and captives. 
" The degenerate and the cowardly, they doomed 
to everlasting banishment beyond the mountains; to 
unremitting labour in employments that disgrace 
manhood — a disgrace heightened by the greatest of 
all afflictions, captivity and servitude among the Ar- 
rowauks."f 

Thus the ideas of the savage, with regard to the 
peculiar nature of future bliss or woe, are always mo- 
dified by associations arising from his peculiar situa- 
tion, his peculiar turn of thought, and the pains and 
pleasures of the senses. With regard to the ques- 
tion in what their happiness or misery will consist, 

Edwards' West Indies, vol. i. p. 73. ' Ibid. vol. i. p. 47. 



35 

they differ ; but with regard to the existence of a 
future state, and that it will be a state of retribution 
for the deeds done in the body, they agree without, 
exception, and their faith is bright and cloudless. 
u Whether you are divinities or mortal men," said 
an old man of Cuba to Columbus, " we know not — 
but if you are men, subject to mortality like our- 
selves, you cannot be unapprised, that after this life 
there is another, wherein a very different portion is 
allotted to good and bad men. If, therefore, you 
expect to die, and believe, with us, that every one is 
to be rewarded in a future state, according to his 
conduct in the present, you will do no hurt to those 
who do none to you."* 

This relation is given us by Martyr, and it is suf- 
ficient to show, with what exactness the primitive 
belief has been retained. This man was a savage, 
but he spoke the language of the purest revelation. 

III. On the belief of a God who regulates the 
affairs of men, and of a future state of rewards and 
punishments, all religion is founded; and from these 
principles, all religious rites are ultimately derived. 
But there is an obvious distinction to be made, be- 
tween the tradition of doctrines, and the tradition of 
those outward observances with which the doctrines 
were originally connected. The tradition of doc- 

* Herrera, lib. ii. cap. 14 and Martyr, decad. i. lib. iii. apud Edwards 
vo). i. p. 72-3. Sec also Stillingfleet's Orig. Sac. Oxon. 1797. vol. 2. p. 3.37. 



86 

tnnes is oral ; the tradition of ceremonies is ocular. 
The relation of the most simple fact, as it passes 
from mouth to mouth, is discoloured and distorted. 
After a few removals from its source, it becomes so 
altered as hardly to have any resemblance to its first 
form. But it is not so with regard to actions. 
These are retained by the sight, the most faithful 
and accurate of our senses : — they are imitated ; — 
the imitation becomes habitual ; — and habits, when 
once formed, are with difficulty eradicated. No 
fact is more certain, or falls more within the expe- 
rience of every attentive observer of our nature, than 
that of customs prevailing among nations, for which 
they are totally unable to account. Even among 
individuals, habits exist, long after the causes have 
ceased, to which they owed their origin. The child 
imitates the actions of the parent, without inquiring, 
in all cases, into the motives which lead to the ob- 
servance ; and even if informed of the motives, he 
may either misconceive or forget them. Here then 
is the difference between oral and ocular tradition. 
The doctrine may be lost in the current of ages, 
while the ceremony is transmitted unimpaired. 

Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem 
Quiitn quffi sunt oculis suhjecta fidelibus. 

Hou. A. P. ISO. 

" That which strikes the eye 



Lives long upon the mind : The faithful sight 
Engraves the image with abeam of light. 



37 

In endeavouring, therefore, to trace the affinities 
which a corrupt religion may bear to the pure, if wo 
wish to be successful, we must confine ourselves to 
its outward observances. This remark applies with 
peculiar force to the religion of the Indian tribes. 
They have never possessed the knowledge of letters, 
and all their religious doctrines have been trusted to 
the uncertain conveyance of oral tradition. The 
wild and roving life of the Indian, is at variance with 
the reception of regular instruction ; and though the 
parents may be very careful in relating their tradi- 
tions to their children,* they must, of necessity, be 
confused and imperfect. 

But supposing them to be ever so exact, we have 
no certainty that the accounts given of them by tra- 
vellers are correct. The Indians, it has before been 
observed, are not communicative on religious sub- 
jects ; and they may take pleasure in baffling, or mis- 
leading, the curiosity of white men, whom they, in 
general, look upon with no friendly eye. And with 
regard to oral traditions, there is greater room, also, 
for the imagination of the traveller to draw wrong 
conclusions, and to be influenced in his report by the 
power of a preconceived system. On the other 
hand, with regard to religious ceremonies, he has 
only to give a faithful relation of what he sees ; and 

* See Hecke welder, Hist. Ace. p 99. who mentions the great pains 
which the Indian* take to instil £uod principles into the minds of (heir chil- 
dren. 



38 



even if the force of some favourite theory, leads him 
to mingle his comments with his description, a judi- 
cious reader is able to separate the one from the 
other. The application of these principles will save 
much labour, and give certainty to a subject, which 
has hitherto been considered as affording nothing 
but conjecture. We will proceed, then, to consider 
the external part of the religion of the Indians, and 
we shall soon see, not only that there is a great 
uniformity among the rites of nations who are radi- 
cally different, but, if I am not mistaken, that con- 
nexion with the patriarchal religion which might 
naturally be supposed to exist, if the one be consi- 
dered as a corruption of the other. 

All who have been conversant with the worship 
of the American tribes, unite in the assertion, that 
they offer sacrifices and oblations, both to the Great 
Spirit, and to the subordinate or intermediate Divi- 
nities. 

To all the inferior deities, whether good or male- 
volent, the Hurons, the Iroquois, and the Algonkins, 
make various kinds of offerings. " To propitiate 
the God of the Waters," says Charlevoix, " they 
cast into the streams and lakes, tobacco, and birds 
which they have put to death. In honour of the 
Sun, and also of inferior Spirits, they consume in 
the fire a part of every thing they use, as an acknow- 
ledgment of the power from which they have de- 



39 

rived these possessions. On some occasions, they 
have been observed to make libations, invoking at 
the same time, in a mysterious manner, the object 
of their worship. These invocations they have 
never explained ; whether it be, that they have in 
fact no meaning, or that the words have been trans- 
mitted by tradition, unaccompanied by their signifi- 
cation, or that the Indians themselves are unwilling 
to reveal the secret. Strings of wampum, tobacco, 
ears of corn, the skins, and often the whole carcasses 
of animals, are seen along difficult or dangerous 
roads, on rocks, and on the shores of rapids, as so 
many offerings made to the presiding spirit of the 
place. In these cases, dogs are the most common 
victims ;* and are often suspended alive upon trees 
by the hinder feet, where they are left to die in a 
state of madness. "t 

What Charlevoix thus affirms, with regard to the 
Hurons, Iroquois, and Algonkins, is mentioned by 
Mackenzie, as practised among the Knisteneaux. 
" There are stated periods," says he, " such as the 
spring and autumn, when they engage in very long 
and solemn ceremonies. On these occasions, dogs 
are offered as sacrifices ; and those which are fat 
and milk white are preferred. They also make large 
offerings of their property, whatever it may be. 
The scene of these ceremonies, is in an open inclo- 

• See Note R ' Charlevoix, Journal, p. 347-8. 



40 

sure, on the bank of a river or lake, and in the most 
conspicuous situation, in order that such as are pass- 
ing along, or travelling, may be induced to make 
their offerings. There is also a particular custom 
among them, that on these occasions, if any of the 
tribe, or even a stranger, should be passing by, and 
be in real want of any thing that is displayed as an 
offering, he has a right to take it, so that he replaces 
it with some article he can spare, though it be of far 
inferior value ; but to take or touch any thing wan- 
tonly is considered as a sacrilegious act, and highly 
insulting to the Great Master of Life, who is the 
sacred object of their devotion." At the feasts 
made by their chiefs, he farther observes, " a small 
quantity of meat or drink is sacrificed before they 
begin to eat, by throwing it into the fire, or on the 
earth."* 

A similar account is given by Adair of the prac- 
tice among the Creeks, Katabahs, Cherokees, Choc- 
taws, and other southern Indians. "The Indian 
women," says he, " always throw a small piece of 
the fattest of the meat into the fire, when they are 
eating, and frequently before they begin to eat. 
They pretend to draw omens from it, and firmly be- 
lieve that it is the mean of obtaining temporal bless- 
ings, and averting temporal evils. The men, both 
in their summer and winter hunt, sacrifice in the 

- Grn. Hist, of Fur Trade, 4to: \\ c ci. cii. civ. Svo. vol. i. p. 123-4. 128. 



41 

woods a large fat piece of the first buck they kill, 
and frequently the whole carcass. This they offer 
up, either as a thanksgiving for the recovery of 
health, and for their former success in hunting, or 
that the Divine care and goodness may still be con- 
tinued to them."* 

The song of the Lenape warriors, as they go out 
to meet their enemy, concludes with the promise ef 
a victim if they return in safety. 

O ! Thou Great Spirit above ! 

Give me strength and courage to meet my enemy 

Suffer me to return again to my children. 

To my wife, 

And to my relations ! 

Take pity on me and preserve my life, 

And 1 will make to thee a sacrifice. 

Accordingly, " after a successful war," says 
Heckewelder, " they never fail to offer up a sacrifice 
to the great Being, to return him thanks for having 
given them courage and strength to destroy or con- 
quer their enemies. "f 

Loskiel, who has given a minute account of 
the sacrifices offered by the Lenape or Dela- 
wares, and who is said, by Heckewelder, to have 
almost exhausted the subject, affirms that they 
are offered upon all occasions, the most trivial. 

* Adair, Hist, of North American Indians, p. 115. 117. 

i Heckewelder. Hist. Ace oflnd. p. 204. 207. [See Note SJ 

6 



42 

as well as the most important. " They sacrifice to 
a hare," says he, " because, according to report, 
the first ancestor of the Indian tribes had that name.* 
To indian corn, they sacrifice bear's flesh, but to deer 
and bears, indian corn ; to the fishes, small pieces of 
bread in the shape of fishes ; but they positively 
deny, that they pay any adoration to these subordi- 
nate good spirits, and affirm, that they only worship 
the true God, through them : For God, say they, 
does not require men to pay offerings or adoration 
immediately to him. He has, therefore, made 
known his will in dreams, notifying to them, what 
beings they have to consider as Manittoes, and what 
offerings to make to them."f — " When a boy dreams, 
that he sees a large bird of prey, of the size of a man, 
Hying toward him from the north, and saying to 
him, ' Roast some meat for me,' the boy is then 
bound to sacrifice the first deer or bear he shoots to 
this bird. The sacrifice is appointed by an old man, 
who fixes on the day and place in which it is to be 
performed. Three days previous to it, messengers 
are sent to invite the guests. These assemble in 
some lonely place, in a house large enough to con- 
tain three fires. At the middle fire, the old man 



* This may account for the following statement by Charlevoix : " Pres- 
que tbutes les Nations Algonquines out doone le nom de grand lA6im an 
premier Esprit. Quelques uns I'appellent Mlchabou ; d autrcs Atahocan." 
Journal, p. 344. 

\ Loskiel, p. 40 



43 

performs the sacrifice. Having sent for twelve 
strait and supple sticks, he fastens them into the 
ground, so as to inclose a circular spot, covering 
them with blankets. He then rolls twelve red-hot 
stones into the inclosure, each of which is dedicated 
to one God in particular. The largest belongs, as 
they say, to the great God in Heaven ; the second, 
to the sun, or the God of the day ; the third, to the 
night sun, or the moon ; the fourth, to the earth ; 
the fifth, to the fire ; the sixth, to the water ; the 
seventh, to the dwelling or House-God ; the eighth, 
to indian corn; the ninth, to the west; the tenth, 
to the south ; the eleventh, to the east ; and the 
twelfth, to the north. The old man then takes a 
rattle, containing some grains of indian corn, and 
leading the boy, for whom the sacrifice is made, into 
the enclosure, throws a handful of tobacco upon the 
red-hot stones, and as the smoke ascends, rattles his 
calabash, calling each God by name, and saying : 
* This boy (naming him) offers unto thee a fine fat 
deer and a delicious dish of sapan ! Have mercy on 
him, and grant good luck to him and his family.' "* 
All the inhabitants of the West fifthes offered sa- 
crifices ; and of these, the Charaibes were accustom- 
ed, at the funerals of their friends, to offer some of 
the captives who had been taken in battle. f I 
scarcely need advert to the well-known fact, that 

Loskiel, part i. cap. iii. p. 42-3. 
I Edwards' West-Indies, p. 47. 51. 



44 

human sacrifices were offered by the Mexicans. Of 
these, all the Spanish historians have given the most 
horrible and disgusting account, and they are de- 
scribed more especially by Bernal Diaz, who was 
an eye witness, with the most artless and affecting 
simplicity. Of this practice, however, there are no 
traces among the present Indian tribes, unless the 
tormenting of their captives, as Charlevoix seems to 
intimate, be considered as a sacrifice to the God of 
war.* 

That the practice of sacrifice, as an expiation for 
sin, formed a prominent feature in the religion of all 
the nations of the old world, is a truth too well 
known to require proof. That it formed a part of 
the patriarchal religion is equally evident ; and that 
it must have been of divine institution will, I think, 
be admitted, after a very little reflection. The ear- 
liest instance of worship, recorded in the Holy Scrip- 
tures, is the sacrifice offered by Cain and Abel, at a 
period when no permission had yet been given to eat 
animal food, and no pretext could have possibly pre- 
sented itself "ft) # fhe mind of man for taking the life 
of any of the creatures of God. It is equally incon- 
ceivable, that by any deduction of unassisted reason, 

* " II semble que ce soit des victimes qu'on engraisse pour le sacrifice, et ils 
sont effectivement iramoles an Dieu de la Guerre : la seule difference qu'on 
met entre ceux et les autres, (the adopted prisoners,) c'est qu'on leur noircit. 
entitlement le visage." Journal Hist. p. 246. 



45 

the mind could have arrived at the conclusion, that 
to destroy a part of creation, could be acceptable to 
the Creator ; much less, that it could be viewed as 
an act of homage. The difficulty is still greater, 
when it is considered that this was intended as an 
expiation for the sins of the offerer. How could the 
shedding of the blood of an animal be looked upon 
as an atonement for the offences which man had 
committed against his maker ? This would have 
been to make an act at which nature would once 
have involuntarily shuddered, the expiation of an- 
other act which might not in itself be so hurtful or 
so barbarous. 

This reasoning is further strengthened by the next 
instance of worship recorded in the Bible. When 
Noah had descended from the Ark, the first act of a 
religious nature which he performed, was to build 
an altar and to offer sacrifice. Human reason would 
have dictated a course of conduct directly opposite ; 
for it would have told him not to diminish the scanty 
remnant of life ; especially when the earth was al- 
ready covered with the victims which had perished 
in the mighty waste of waters. 

But if of divine institution, the question then ari- 
ses, what was the reason of the institution ? Every 
intelligent being proposes to himself some end — 
some design to be accomplished by his actions. 
What, then, with reverence let it be asked, was the 
design of God ? 



46 

To the Christian the solution of this inquiry is not 
difficult. He has learned, that in the secret counsels 
of almighty wisdom, the death of the Messiah was 
essential for the salvation of man ; that in his death, 
the first of our race was as much interested as he 
will be, who will listen to the last stroke of depart- 
ing time ; that it was necessary, therefore, to esta- 
blish a representation of this great event as a sign of 
the future blessing, in order to keep alive the hopes 
and the expectations of men ; and that this was ef- 
fected by the slaughter of an innocent animal, whose 
life was in the blood, and whose blood poured out 
was the symbol of His death, who offered himself a 
ransom for the sins of men. 

Assuming this as the origin and intent of sacri- 
fice, it is easy to account for its universal prevalence 
among mankind. Noah, as we have seen, offered a 
burnt offering immediately after he left the Ark. 
From him, and his three sons, did their posterity de- 
rive the practice ; and we find from the Scriptures, 
that it prevailed among all the nations, which, from 
their connexion with the family of Israel, are there 
incidentally mentioned. 

If we turn to profane history, we cannot open a 
volume without meeting every where the record 
of sacrifice. The Phenicians, the Ethiopians, the 
Egyptians, the Chinese, the Persians, the nations in 
the north of Europe and Asia, the Carthaginians, 
the Greeks, the Romans, the inhabitants of Gaul 



47 

and Britain — in a word, every heathen nation, of 
which we have any records remaining, constantly 
offered sacrifice as an expiation for sin. The gra- 
dual corruption of the true religion, while it caused 
the origin of the rite to be forgotten, made no other 
alteration in the practice than such as regarded the 
quality of the victim. Human reason must, at all 
times, have perceived, how inadequate was the 
slaughter of animals to atone for the sins of man- 
kind. A nobler victim seemed to be demanded ; and 
it was not to be wondered at, that the blood of men, 
and even of children, as approaching nearer to inno- 
cence, should finally be considered as essential to ob- 
tain the grant of pardon.* 

To find the same practice prevailing among all 
the Indian tribes of America, a practice deriving its 
origin, not from any dictate of nature, or from 
the deductions of reason, but resting solely upon the 
positive institution of God, affords the most trium- 
phant evidence, that they sprang from the common 
parent of mankind, and that their religion, like that 
of all other heathen nations, is derived by a gradual 
deterioration from that of Noah. At the same time, 
it will be seen, that they are far from having sunk to 
the lowest round on the scale of corruption. With 
the exception of the Mexicans, their religious rites 

- See Nate T. 



48 

have a character of mildness which we should else- 
where seek in vain. 

IV. Having seen that sacrifice is practised among 
the Indians, we are naturally led to consider the 
question, whether they have among them a priest- 
hood ; and, on this point, the testimony of travel- 
lers is somewhat discordant. Mackenzie mentions 
that the Chepewyans have high priests ;* yet he 
describes the public sacrifices of the Knisteneaux, as 
offered by their chiefs, and the private, by every man 
in his own cabin, assisted by his most intimate 
friend. f Charlevoix says, that among the Indians of 
whom he writes, in public ceremonies, the chiefs are 
the priests, in private, the father of each family, or 
where there is none, the most considerable person in 
the cabin. An aged missionary, he says, who lived 
among the Ottawas, stated, that with them an old 
man performed the office of priest."! Loskiel says 

* Mackenzie, Svo vol. i. p. 153. " There are conjurers and high priests ; 
but I was not present at any of their ceremonies." 

t Ibid, p. 124. 128-9. 

t " Si Ton pent dormer le nom de sacrifices aux offrandes, que ces peuplet 
font a leurs divmites, les prSlres parmi eux ne sont jamais les jongleurs : dans 
les ceremonies publiques, ce sont les chefs, et dans le domestique, ce sont 
erdinairement les peres de famille, ou a leur defaut les plus considerable de 
la cabanne " Journal Hist. p. 364. 

" Un ancien Missionaire (le pere Claude Allouez, jesuite) qui a beau- 
coup vecu avec les Outaouais a ecrit que, parmi ces sauvages, un viellard fait 
1 'office de pivtre dans les fest'ms, dont je viens de parler ; qu'il commence par 
remercier les esprits du succes de la chasse ; qu'ensuite un autre prend un 
pain de petun, le rompt en deux, et le jette dans le feu." Ibid, p. 350. 



49 

of the Lenape, or Delaware Indians, that " they 
have neither priests regularly appointed, nor tem- 
ples. At general and solemn sacrifices, the oldest 
men perform the offices of priests ; but in private 
parties, each man bringing a sacrifice is priest him- 
self. Instead of a temple, a large dwelling-house 
is fitted up for the purpose." He afterwards speaks 
of the place of offering, under the name of " the 
house of sacrifice," and mentions it as being " in a 
lonely place."* 

On the other hand, Bartram, in his account of the 
Southern tribes, says, " There is in every town, or 
tribe, a High Priest, with several inferior, or junior 
priests, called by the white people jugglers, or conju- 
rers.'^ To the same purpose, Adair asserts, that 
they " have their High Priests, and others of a reli- 
gious order." " Ishtohoollo," he observes, " is the 
name of all their priestly order, and their pontifical 
office descends by inheritance to the eldcst."J 

Notwithstanding this diversity, however, the dif- 
ference is more in appearance than in reality. Va- 
rious meanings attached to the same words, in con- 
sequence of arbitrary associations, may produce a 
diversity of description. If a priest be one whose 
exclusive duty it is to celebrate the rites of religion, 

* Loskiel, p. 39, 40. 42. ad calc. A house of sacrifice is only another 
name for temple. 

t Bartram, Travels through North and South Carolina Georgia, East and 
West Florida, &c. Loud. 1792. 8vo. p. 495. 

* fcdair, Hist. 'North American Indians, p, so. si. 



then it must be admitted that a priesthood exists 
among the Indians ; for those who deny that they 
have priests, allow that in their public sacrifices 
the chiefs are the only persons authorized to offi- 
ciate. The only difference, then, lies in this, whe- 
ther the priesthood be or be not connected with the 
office of the magistrate. 

Among Christians, as among the Jews, the priest- 
hood is distinct from the civil authority ; but pre- 
vious to the separation of the family of Aaron, these 
two offices were generally united. Melchizedeck 
Avas both king of Salem and priest of the most High 
God. Jethro was, at the same time, priest and 
prince of Midian ; and Abraham himself, who is 
called a prince, performed the sacerdotal functions. 
We find this union of the regal and sacerdotal cha- 
racters existing among heathen nations. Homer 
describes the aged Pylian King as performing reli- 
gious rites ;* and Virgil tells of the Monarch of 
Delos, who was both priest and king : 

"Rex Anius, rex idem hominum Phcebique sacerdos."t 

Among the Creeks, and other Southern Indians, 
a monarchical form of government seems to pre- 
vail ; among the Northern Indians, a republican. 
In both, the sacerdotal office may be united with 
civil authority, and therefore partake of its peculiar 
character. Among the one, it may be hereditary ; 

Odyss. lib. i'ri. 1. 418-460. P JEnri-J. lib. ill 1.80. 



51 

among the other, elective. If this be not sufficient 
to reconcile the discordant accounts, we are bound, 
I think, to respect the united testimony of Charle- 
voix and Loskiel, in preference to any other, as they 
do not appear to have had any system to serve, 
which might give a bias to their statements. And if 
this be so, it will be seen that the Religion of the In- 
dians approaches much nearer to the patriarchal, than 
to that of the Jews. Their public sacerdotal offices 
are performed by their chiefs, and in their private, 
the head of every family is its priest. 

V. But there is another office, which Carver, Bar- 
tram, and others, have confounded with the priest- 
hood, which exists among all the Indian Tribes, and 
concerning which, there is no diversity in the state- 
ment of travellers. To this class of men, the French 
Missionaries gave the name of Jongleurs, whence 
the English have derived that of Jugglers or Conju- 
rers.* To use the definition of Charlevoix, they 
are those servants of their Gods, whose duty it is to 
announce their wishes, and to be their interpreters 
to men :f or, in the language of Volney, those 
¥ whose trade it is 4 to expound dreams, and to nego- 

* See Note U. 

t " lis (the Jongleurs) ne sont niansinoins les niinistres de ces Dieux prt-- 
tendus, que pour annoncer aux Iiomnies leurs volontes, et pour etre leurs in- 
terpretes : car, si Ion peut donner le nom de sacrifices aux offrandes que ces 
peuples font a leurs Divinites, les pre Ires parmi ewx fie unit jamais les Jon- 
gleurs." Journal Hist. p. 363-4. 



m 

tiate between the Manitto, and the votary."* " The 
Jongleurs of Canada," says Charlevoix, " boast that 
by means of the good spirits whom they consult, 
they learn what is passing in the most remote coun- 
tries, and what is to come to pass at the most dis- 
tant period of time ; that they discover the origin 
and nature of the most secret disorders, and obtain 
the hidden method of curing them ; that they dis- 
cern the course to be pursued in the most intricate 
affairs ; that they learn to explain the obscurest 
dreams, to give success to the most difficult negotia- 
tions, and to render the Gods propitious to warriors 
and hunters." " I have heard," he adds, " from per- 
sons of the most undoubted judgment and veracity, 
that when these impostors shut themselves up in 
their sweating stoves, which is one of their most 
common preparations for the performance of their 
sleight of hand, they differ in no respect from the 
descriptions given by the poets, of the priestesses of 
Apollo, when seated on the Delphic Tripod. They 
have been seen to fall into convulsions, to assume 
tones of voice, and to perform actions, which were 
seemingly superior to human strength, and which 
inspired with an unconquerable terror, even the most 
prejudiced spectators." Their predictions were 
•sometimes so surprisingly verified, that Charlevoix 

* View of the soil and climate, &c. p. 417. 



63 

seems firmly to have believed, that they had a real 
intercourse with the father of lies.* 

This account of the Jongleurs of Canada, is con- 
firmed by Mr. Heckewelder, in his late work on the 
Indian Tribes. " They are a set," he observes, " of 
professional impostors, who, availing themselves of 
the superstitious prejudices of the people, acquire 
the name and reputation of men of superior know- 
ledge, and possessed of supernatural powers. As 
the Indians in general believe in witchcraft, and 
ascribe to the arts of sorcerers many of the disor- 
ders with which they are afflicted in the regular 
course of nature, this class of men has arisen among 
them, who pretend to be skilled in a certain occult 
science, by means of which they are able, not only 
to cure natural diseases, but to counteract or destroy 
the enchantments of wizzards or witches, and expel 
evil Spirits, "f 

" There are jugglers of another kind, in general 
old men and women — who get their living by 
pretending to supernatural knowledge — to bring- 
down rain when wanted, and to impart good luck 
to bad hunters. In the summer of 1799, a most 
uncommon drought happened in the Muskingum 
country. An old man was applied to by the wo- 
men to bring down rain, and, after various ceremo- 



Charlevoix, Journal, p. 361-2. 
t Heckewelder, Hist. Account, at supr. p. 224. 



54 

nies, declared that they should have rain enough. 
The sky had been clear for nearly five weeks, and 
was equally clear when the Indian made this decla- 
ration. But about four in the afternoon, the horizon 
became overcast, and, without any thunder or wind, 
it began to rain, and continued to do so till the 
ground became thoroughly soaked. Experience 
had doubtless taught him to observe that certain 
signs in the sky or in the water were the forerun- 
ners of rain ; yet the credulous multitude did not 
fail to ascribe it to his supernatural power."* " It 
is incredible to what a degree the superstitious belief 
in witchcraft operates on the mind of the Indian. 
The moment his imagination is struck with the idea 
that he is bewitched, he is no longer himself. Of 
this extraordinary power of their conjurers, of the 
causes which produce it, and the manner in which it 
is acquired, they have not a very definite idea. The 
sorcerer, they think, makes use of some deadening 
substance, which he conveys to the person he means 
to ' strike,' in a manner which they can neither un- 
derstand nor describe. The person thus ' stricken,' 
is immediately seized with an unaccountable terror. 
His spirits sink, his appetite fails, he is disturbed in 
his sleep, he pines and wastes away, or a fit of sick- 
ness seizes him, and he dies at last, a miserable vic- 
tim to the workings of his own imagination. "f 

* Heckewelder, Hist. Ace. of Indians, ut supr. p. 229 — 231. 
' Ibid, p. 232 3. 



55 



A remarkable instance of this belief in the power 
of these sorcerers, and of the wonderful effects of 
imagination, is related by Heame, as having occur- 
red during his residence among the northern or 
Chepewyan Indians. Matonabbee, one of their 
chiefs, had requested him to kill one of his enemies, 
who was at that time several hundred miles distant. 
" To please this great man," says he, " and not ex- 
pecting that any harm could possibly arise from it, I 
drew a rough sketch of two human figures on a piece 
of paper, in the attitude of wrestling ; in the hand 
of one of them I drew the figure of a bayonet, point- 
ing to the breast of the other. ' This,' said I to 
Matonabbee, pointing to the figure which was hold- 
ing the bayonet, ' is I, and the other is your enemy. 7 
Opposite to those figures I drew a pine tree, over 
which I placed a large human eye, and out of the 
tree projected a human hand. This paper I gave to 
Matonabbee, with instructions to make it as public 
as possible. The following year when he came to 
trade, he informed me that the man was dead. Ma- 
tonabbee assured me, that the man was in perfect 
health when he heard of my design against him, but 
almost immediately afterward became (mite gloomy, 
and, refusing all kinds of sustenance, in a very few 
days died."* 

Bartram, in his account of the manners and habits 

* Hearne, Journey to the Northern Ocean. Dublin, 17Pfi, 8vo. p. 221 
Note. 



56 

of the tribes which inhabit Florida and the south of 
the United States, relates, as their general belief, 
that " their seer has communion with powerful in- 
visible spirits, who have a share in the government of 
human affairs, as well as of the elements. His in- 
fluence is so great, as frequently to turn back an 
army when within a day's journey of their enemy, 
after a march of several hundred miles." " Indeed," 
he adds, " the predictions of these men have sur- 
prised many people. They foretel rain or drought, 
pretend to bring rain at pleasure, cure diseases, ex- 
ercise witchcraft, invoke or expel evil spirits, and 
even assume the power of directing thunder and 
lightning."* 

The power, then, of these impostors, is supposed 
to consist — in the miraculous cure of diseases — the 
procuring of rain, and other temporal blessings, in 
the same supernatural manner — the miraculous in- 
fliction of punishment upon the subjects of their dis- 
pleasure — and the foretelling of future events. It 
will immediately be seen, that these are, in fact, the 
characteristics of the prophetic office ; those, I mean, 
which are external, which produce, therefore, a last- 
ing impression upon the senses of men, and from 
the force of ocular tradition, would naturally be pre- 
tended to, even after the power of God was with- 
drawn. 

* Bartram, Travel?, lit supr. p. 496 



57 

That true prophets had such power, is evident 
from the whole tenor of Sacred History. On their 
power of predicting future events, it is not necessary 
to dwell ; but it will be seen, that there is a striking 
analogy between the pretensions of the Indian im- 
postors, and the miracles wrought by the prophets. 
We have seen, that the former assume the power of 
curing or inflicting diseases by supernatural means. 
We find the prophets curing or inflicting the most 
inveterate diseases, by a word, by a touch, by wash- 
ing, and other means naturally the most inadequate.* 
We have seen that the Indian impostors pretend to 
foretel drought or rain. So, Elijah the Tishbite 
said to Ahab, " As the Lord God of Israel liveth, 
before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain 
these years, but according to my word."f And 
again, the same prophet, when there was no appear- 
ance of change in the heavens, said to the King, 
" Get thee up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of 
abundance of rain."{ We have seen, that among the 
Indians, the conjurers pretend to inflict punishment 
on their enemies by supernatural means. So we 
read of a true prophet, that he commanded fire to 
descend from heaven and consume the soldiers who 
were sent by the King of Israel to take him.§ 

But I wish to direct your attention more especially 

* Thus Naaman was cured of liis leprosy by Elisha. and the same disease 
inflicted by the prophet on his servant Gehazi. 2 Kings, \ . 

1 1 Kings, xvii I ! 1 Kings, xviii. II * 2Kings,l 10. 12. 



58 

to a very early period of Sacred History, while the 
Gentiles had not yet entirely apostatized from the 
worship of the true God, and therefore were not yet 
wholly cut off from the patriarchal church. In the 
history of Abraham and Abimelech, we have an in- 
stance of the power which prophets possessed of ob- 
taining blessings for others. " Now, therefore," 
said God to Abimelech, " restore the man his wife : 
for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and 
thou shalt live"* The same power is attributed to 
Job, who was probably a descendant of Esau ; con- 
sequently, not one of the chosen family ; and, there- 
fore, a prophet among the Gentiles. " The Lord 
said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled 
against thee and against thy two friends. — There- 
fore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven 
rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for 
yourselves a burnt-offering, and my servant Job 
shall pray for you, for him will I accept : lest I deal 
with you after your folly. "f 

Traces of the same power are to be found in the 
History of Balaam, the prophet of Midian. When 
the Israelites, on their passage from Egypt, were 
passing through the country of Moab, the King of 
the Moabites, alarmed for his personal safety, sent 
for the prophet to curse them. " Come now, there- 
fore, I pray thee, curse me this people, for they are 

* Gen. xx. 7. 1 Job. xlii. 7. 8 



59 

too mighty for me ; peraelventure, I shall prevail, 
that we may smite them, and that I may drive them 
out of the land : for I wot, that he whom thou blessest 
is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed. And 
the elders of Moab, and the elders of Midian, de- 
parted with the rewards of divination in their hand ; 
and they came unto Balaam and spake unto him the 
words of Balak. And he said unto them, lodge 
here this night, and I will bring you word again, as 
Jehovah shall speak unto me. — And God said unto 
Balaam, thou shalt not go with them ; thou shalt 
not curse the people, for they are blessed."* Here 
is not only a proof of the power ascribed to the 
prophet by the nations among whom he dwelt, but 
a-' recognition, by God himself, of the authority of 
Balaam to bless and curse in his name. And here, 
if I mistake not, we may observe the connecting 
link between the power of true prophets, and the 
arts practised by the false, after the divine influence 
was withdrawn. The elders of Moab and of Midi- 
an, it is said, " departed with the rewards of divina- 
tion in their hand." The inference is inevitable, 
that Balaam, who undoubtedly had intercourse with 
the true God, was at times deprived of the divine in- 
fluence, and that under a sense of that deprivation, 
he had recourse to the arts of divination. Of this 
there is farther evidence. " Surely," he exclaims, 

-" Numb. sxii. 6, 7, 8. 12. 



60 

in one of tiis sublime prophecies, " there is no en- 
chantment against Jacob, neither is there any divina- 
tion against Israel." And it is subsequently stated, 
that " when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to 
bless Israel, he went not, as at other times, to seek 
for enchantments."* When he could not obtain au- 
thority from God to curse Israel, he had recourse, in 
the depravity of his heart, to these unhallowed in- 
cantations ; but finding that it was in vain to con- 
tend with the determination of the Almighty, he re- 
signed himself at length to the divine influence, and 
converted his intended curse into a blessing. " How 
goodly are thy tents, O Jacob ! and thy tabernacles, 
O Israel ! — Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and 
cursed is he that curseth thee."f 

In proportion, then, as Idolatry increased, the 
prophetic spirit in the patriarchal church was gra- 
dually withdrawn. While the true God was wor- 
shipped, even though in absurd connexion with Idols, 
the divine influence was sometimes communicated. 
But being gradually more and more frequently de- 
nied, the prophets had recourse to the superstitious 
observances of divination and judicial astrology. 
And as Idolatry, in its downward course, at length 
lost sight of the Creator, and worshipped only the 
creatures, so the prophetic office degenerated into 
the arts by which impostors preyed upon the super- 
stition of the ignorant. 

* Numb. xxiv. 1 . t Ibid, 5. 9, 



61 

J have now, gentlemen, finished the view Which 
I proposed to take of the Religion of the Indians. 
I am sensible that it is very imperfect, but enough 
has been said, I hope, to show the analogy which it 
bears to the religion of the patriarchal ages, and its 
wonderful uniformity, when considered as prevailing 
among nations so remote and unconnected. 

It has already been observed, however, that their 
religious system can afford no clue by which to 
trace them to any particular nation of the old world. 
On a subject so obscure as the origin of nations, 
there is great danger of expatiating in conjectures. 
In fact, the view here taken, in some measure cuts 
off these conjectures, by tracing the Aborigines of 
America, to a higher source than has usually been 
assigned to them. If the opinion I have advanced 
be true, it will, I think, appear rational to believe, 
that the Indians are a primitive people ; — that, like 
the Chinese, they must have been among the earliest 
emigrants of the descendants of Noah ; — that, like 
that singular nation, they advanced so far beyond 
the circle of human society, as to become entirely 
separated from all other men; — and that, in this way, 
they preserved a more distinct and homogeneous 
character than is to be found in any other portion 
of the Globe. Whether they came immediately to 
this western continent, or whether they arrived here 
by gradual progression, can never be ascertained, 
and is, in fact, an inquiry of little moment. It is 



62 

probable, however, that, like the Northern hordes 
who descended upon Europe, and who constituted 
the basis of its present population, their numbers 
were great ; and that from one vast reservoir, they 
flowed onward in successive surges, wave impelling 
wave, till they had covered the whole extent of this 
vast continent. At least, this hypothesis may ac- 
count for the uniform character of their religion, 
and for the singular fact which has lately been illus- 
trated by a learned member of the American Philo- 
sophical Society, that their languages form a sepa- 
rate class in human speech, and that, in their plans 
of thought, the same system extends from the coasts 
of Labrador to the extremity of Cape Horn.* 

But, turning from speculations which are ren- 
dered sublime by their shadowy form, and immeasu- 
rable magnitude, I shall conclude a discourse which, 
I fear, has become already tedious, by remarks of a 
more practical, and, I would hope, of a more useful 
nature. 

We have seen that, like all other nations unblessed 
with the light of Christianity, the Indians are idola- 
tors ; but their idolatry is of the mildest character, 
and has departed less than among any other people 
from the form of primeval truth. — Their belief in a 
future state is clear and distinct, debased only by 



63 

those corporeal associations which proceed from the 
constitutional operations of our nature, and from 
which even Christians, therefore, are not totally ex- 
empt — They retain among them the great principle 
of expiation for sin, without which all religion would 
be unavailing — And they acknowledge, in all the 
common occurrences of life, and even in their very 
superstitions, the overruling power of Divine Provi- 
dence, to which they are accustomed to look up 
with an implicit confidence, which might often put 
to shame the disciples of a purer faith. 

Provided, then, that their suspicions respecting 
every gift bestowed by the hands of white men, can 
be overcome, the comparative purity of their reli- 
gion renders it so much the easier to propagate 
among them the Gospel of Salvation.* In this view, 
is it possible for the benevolent heart to restrain the 
rising wish, that the scanty remnant of this unfortu- 
nate race may be brought within the verge of civi- 
lized life, and made to feel the influence, the cheer- 
ing and benign influence, of Christianity ? Is it not 
to be wished, that the God whom they ignorantly 
worship, may be declared to them, and that, toge- 
ther with the practices they have so long preserved, 
may be united that doctrine which alone can illu- 
mine what is obscure, and unravel what is intricate ? 
If this be desirable, it must be done quickly, or the 

• See Note X 



64 

opportunity will be for ever lost. Should our pre- 
judices prevent it, we must remember that their 
faults will be obscured, and their virtues brightened, 
by the tints of time. Posterity will think of them, 
more in pity than in anger, and will blame us for the 
little regard which has been paid to their welfare. 

Hapless nations ! — Like the mists which are ex- 
haled by the scorching radiance of your summer's 
sun, ye are fast disappearing from the earth. But 
there is a Great Spirit above, who, though for wise 
purposes he causes you to disappear from the earth, 
still extends his protecting care to you, as well as to 
the rest of his creatures. — There is a country of 
Souls, a happier, and better country, which will be 
opened, w r e may charitably hope, to you, as well as 
to the other children of Adam. — There is the ato- 
ning blood of the Redeemer, which was shed for 
jou, as well as the rest of mankind ; the efficacy of 
which, you have unwittingly continued to plead ; and 
which may be extended, in its salutary influence, 
even to those who have never called on, because they 
have never heard, the name of the Son of God. 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



NOTE A. 

Thus, Hearne says, "Religion has not as yet begun to dawn among the 
Northern Indians — I never found any of them that had the least idea of futu- 
rity." " Matonabbee, a man of as clear ideas in other matters as any that I 
ever saw, always declared to me, that neither he, nor any of his country 1 
•men, had an idea of a future state." Journey to the Northern Ocean. Dub- 
lin, 179G, Svo. p. 343 — 4. Yet Mackenzie affirms, that they believe iu a 
future state of rewards and punishments, and gives a very particular account 
of their belief. " They are," he says, " superstitious in the extreme. I ne- 
ver observed that they had any particular form of religious worship ; but as 
they believe in a good and evil spirit, and a state of future rewards and pu- 
nishments, they cannot be devoid of religious impressions. At the same 
time, they manifest a decided unwillingness to make any communications on the 
subject." This last fact will account for the declaration of Matonabbee; 
and also for the concealment of their forms of worship from the view of 
Mackenzie. Mackenzie, Gen. Hist. Svo. vol. 1. p. 145. 156. Mackenzie cor- 
rects several other erroneous statements made by Hearne. 

Colden, speaking of the five natious, says: "It is certain they have no 
kind of public worship, and I am told they have no radical word to express 
God, but use a compound word, signifying the Preserver, Sustainer, or Mas- 
ter of the Universe ; neither could I ever learn what sentiments they have of 
a future existence." Colden, Introduction to Hist, of Five Indian Nations 
of Canada, p. 15. On the other hand, Charlevoix assures us, that " parmi 
ces peuples, qu'on a pretendu n'avoir aucune idee de religion, ni de Divi- 
nite, presque tout paroit l'objet dun culte religieux, ou du moins y avoir 
quelque rapport." Journal, p. 348. And Heckewelder affirms, that " Ha- 
bitual devotion to the Great First Cause, and a strong feeling of gratitude for 
the benefits which He confers, is one of the prominent traits which charac- 
terize the mind of the untutored Indian." Hist. Ace. p. 84. " Another dif- 
ficulty I had to encounter," says Adair, " was the secrecy and closeness of the. 
Indians as to their own affairs, and their prying disposition into (hose of 
others." Adair, N. Am. Indians, preface. The testimony of so respectable 
a writer as Colden would have great weight, if he had spoken from his own 

9 



66 



personal knowledge ; but he confessedly derived his opinions of the Indian 
character from the testimony of others. What he has said, therefore, can- 
not avail against the united testimony of Charlevoix, Adair, and Heckewel- 
der. 

NOTE B. 

- Goinara et Jean De Lery font descendre tous les Ameriquains des Ca- 
naneens chasses de la terre promise par Josue." — Charlevoix, Dissertation 
sur l'origine des Ameriquains, prefixed to his Journal d'un Voyage, Sic. 
Histoire de la Nouvelle France, torn. 3. p. 4. Paris, 1744, 4to. 

" Lescarbot panche un peu plus vers le sentiment de ceux qui ont trans- 
porte dans le Nouveau Monde les Cananeens chasses de la terre promise par 
Josue. II y trouve an moins quelque vraisemblance en ce que ces peuples, 
aussi bicn que les Ameriquains, avoient la cofttume de faire sauter leurs en- 
fans par-dessus le feu, en invoquant leurs idoles, et de manger la chair 
humaine." Ibid, p. 10. 

" En 1642. Grotius publia un petit ouvrage in-quarto sous ce titre : De 
origine gentium Americanarum. — Si on en croit le docte Hollandois, a 
l'exception de l'Yucatan, et de quelques autres provinces voisines, dont il 
fait une classe a part, toute l'Amerique Septentrionnale a ete peuple par les 
Norvegiens. — Ce qui l'oblige de mettre a part l'Yucatan, c'est l'usage de la 
Circoncision, dont il s'est mis dans la tete qu'on a trouve des traces dans 
cette province, et une pretendue tradition ancienne des habitans, qui portoit, 
que leurs ancetres avoient ete sauves des flots de la mer ; ce qui a fait croire 
a quelques-uns, ajoute-t'-il, qu'ils etoientjissus des Hebreux. II refute neans- 
moins cette opinion, avec les memes argumens a peu prcs dont s'est servi 
Breverood, (Breerwood,) et il estime, avec Dom Pierre Martyr d'Anglerie, 
que les premiers qui peuplerent l'Yucatan, furent des Ethiopiens jettes sur 
cette cote par une tempute, ou par quelque autre accident. II juge meme 
que ces Ethiopiens etoient Chretiens, ce qu'il infere d'une csp6ce de Bap- 
teme usite dans le pays." — Ibid. p. 12, 13. 

In this dissertation, Charlevoix, has given a very judicious and interest- 
ing summary of the several theories, which had been formed, at the time 
he wrote, respecting the peopling of America. As the writings of their re- 
spective authors are mentioned in chronological order, it may be called, in 
fact, the annals of these opinions, up to the date of his work: (1744.) In 
contemplating their extravagance and inconsistency, we scarcely know 
whether to smile or to mourn most, at these results of learned imagination. 

In 1767, was published at Amsterdam, a French work, entitled, " Essai 
sur cette question, quand et comment l'Amerique a-t-elle ete peuplee 
d'honimes ct d'auimaux? parE. B. d'E." The author professes respect- 



67 

lor religion ; but he is either an Infidel in disguise,' or a very sorry Christian ; 
and he has asmattering oflearning, just extensive and superficial enough, to 
intoxicate the brain. He maintains, thai the deluge was of very limited 
extent ; that the Chinese and the Scythians are the descendants of Abel ; 
that the Egyptians and Ethiopians are the posterity of Cain ; that the Negro 
complexion was the stigma of his punishment ; that the Creeks, Thracians, 
Celts, and ancient inhabitants of Italy, were Antediluvians; and hence, he 
concludes, that the Aborigines of America are derived from as high an origin. 
For the establishment of this theory, which occupies a quarto volume of 
600 pages, he has formed a vast apparatus of astronomy and geology, of 
history and philology, in which the wrecks of every thing that had been 
considered by the learned as established, and no longer controvertible, ap- 
pear " nantes in gurgite vasto." 

In 1810, the excellently learned professor Vater published at Leipzig his 
11 Inquiry on the origin of the American population," in which he minutely 
considers every hypothesis that has ever been formed or maintained on this 
interesting subject. It will doubtless give pleasure to the public, to be in- 
formed, that Mr. Duponceau is now engaged in translating this valuable 
work, which is undoubtedly the best that has ever been written on the subject. 

NOTE C. 

I have excluded the Karalit, because it is generally admitted, that 
the Esquimaux derive their origin from Groenland, and are a distinct 
race from all the other inhabitants of this Continent. " In all the 
North American territories,'' says Heckewelder, "bounded to the North 
and East by the Atlantic ocean, and to the South and West by the river 
Mississippi, and the possessions of the English Hudson's Bay Company, 
there appear to be but four principal languages; branching out, it is true, 
into various dialects, but all derived from one or the other of the four mo- 
ther tongues, some of which extend even beyond the Mississippi, and per- 
haps as far as the rocky mountains. These four languages are, 1. The Karalit. 
2. The Iroquois. 3. The Lenape. 4. The Floridian. Mr. Duponceau has 
mentioned, in his report prefixed to Mr. Heckewclder's history, that the 
language of the Osages has been found, from a vocabulary by Dr. Murray 
of Louisville, to be a dialect of the Iroquois. " By means of this vocabula- 
ry,'' says he, " we have acquired a knowledge of the wide-spread extent of 
the family of Indian nations of Iroquois origin, which, not long ago, were 
thought to exist only in the vicinity of the great lakes, while we are enabled 
to trace them even to the banks of the Missouri." p. xxxvii. 

Charlevoix and Loskiel give substantially the same account. " Dans rctte 
otendue de pays," says the former, " qu'on appelle propremonf la Nouvelle 



68 



France, qui n'a de bornes au nord que du c6te dc la bayc de Hudson, qui 
n'en a point d'autre a Test que la mer, les coloiiies Angloises au sud, la 
Louysiane ausud-est, ct les terres des Espagnols a louest ; dans cette etendue 
dis-je, de pays, il n'v a que trois langues-meres dont tontes les autres sont 
derivees. Ces langucs sont, la Siouse, l'Algouquine, et la Huronne." Jour- 
nal, p. 183. The Huron, is the same with the Iroquois ; and the Algonquin, 
only another name for the Lenape or Delaware. AVith regard to the third 
language (la Siouse) Charlevoix confesses he knew little or nothing. 

"It appears very probable," says Loskiel, " that the Delaware and Iroquois 
are the principal languages spoken throughout the known part of North 
America, Terra Labrador excepted, and that all others are dialects of them. 
Our missionaries at least, who were particularly attentive to this subject, 
have never met with any which had not some similitude with either one 
or the other : But the Delaware language bears no resemblance to the Iro- 
quois." Hist, of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians of 
North America, part 1. ch. 2. p. 18. Lond. 1794, 8vo. i 

We have no reason, I think, to doubt the statement of the Roman and Mo- 
ravian missionaries, who have made these languages their study, and who had 
no object in attempting to trace affinities where none existed. In the state- 
ments of Charlevoix and Hecke welder, the Spanish territories are cautiously 
excluded ; doubtless because of the great number of radical languages which 
are said to exist there. For the same reason, in Loskiel's account, the term 
JVorth America is to be understood in contradistinction to Middle, as well 
as South America ; since the Moravian missionaries could have had no 
knowledge of the Indian languages within the Spanish dominions. — I wish 
to be understood as speaking with the same reservation ; on account of the 
express testimony given to this surprising fact by the most respectable wit- 
nesses. " Le nombre de ces langues," says the Baron Von Humboldt, 
speaking of the languages of Mexico, " est au dela de vingt, dont quatorze 
ont deja des grammaires et des dictionnaires assez complets." After enu- 
merating them, he proceeds to observe, " 11 paroit que la plupart de ces 
langues, loin d'et/es des dialectes d'une seule, (comme quelques auteurs l'ont 
faussement avanc6,) sont au raoins aussi differentes les unes des autres que 
Test le Grec de I'Allemand, ou le Francois du Polonois : e'est du moins le cas 
des sept langues dc la Nouvelle-Espagne, dont je possede les vocabulaires. 
Cettc raricli d'idiomes que parlent les peuples du Aouveau Continent, et que, 
sans la moindre cxagtralion on peut porter a plusiecrs centaines, pre- 
sente un phrnominc bienfrappant, surtout si on les compare au pen de langues 
qu'offrent I'Asic et VEurope." Essai politique sur le Royaume de Nouvelle 
Espagne, torn. 1. p. 378. Paris, 1811. Svo. 

It is, indeed, a striking phenomenon ; and it becomes still more so when 
compared with the fact, tfiatin the United States and British America, there are 



69 



only four radical languages, even including the language of Grocnland. If,. 
however, it should be true, as Humboldt thinks, that there are several 
hundreds of primitive American languages, it would only afford stronger 
proof of the truth of the position, in support of which the existence of 
three radical languages has been mentioned ; namely, that the Indians are 
not the descendants of the twelve tribes. 

I feel very great diffidence in appearing to call in question so high an au- 
thority, yet I cannot help suggesting the probability, that the more our know- 
ledge of Indian languages is extended, the greater will be the affinities we 
shall discover; and that many will be found to be related, which are now 
considered as totally distinct. 

Even in written language, to trace etymologies is, in many cases, a diffi- 
cult task; and requires an extensive knowledge of the philosophy of human 
speech. But this difficulty is immeasurably increased, when languages are 
merely oral, and are represented in foreign characters, not by the natives 
themselves, but by persons who are often ignorant of all other tongues but 
their own, w ho are confessedly unacquainted with that which they endea- 
vour to write, and whose power of discriminating sounds is not always the 
most acute. 

When a language is written, the writing continues unaltered through all 
the changes of pronunciation ; when it is only spoken, the deviations from 
the original become rapid and various, in proportion as the imperfections 
are more or less extensive, of the bodily organs and the mental faculties. 

As, therefore, languages merely oral tend inevitably to corruption, so the 
attempts made to reduce them to writing, are subject to corresponding im- 
perfections. The alphabets in which they are represented, may vary in 
themselves, and be severally incompetent to convey an exact idea of (heir 
(towers. Persons who use the same alphabet may employ different com- 
binations of letters to represent the same sounds. " I have frequently 
found," says the celebrated circumnavigator, Captain Cook, " that the 
same tcords, written down by tioo or more persons from the mouth of the 
same natice, on being compared together, differed not a little." Voyages, 
vol.2, p. 521. Lond. 1785. 4to. And even if the sounds be perfectly re- 
presented, we know, from our own experience, the confusion, with regard 
to etymology, which would arise from making pronunciation the standard 
of orthography. The anomalies of English pronunciation are so great, that 
if we were to write it as it is spoken, to trace its etymologies would re- 
quire the powers of an (Edipus. 

Under such disadvantages, we certainly ought to be cautious not to form 
hasty opinions with regard to the affinities of Indian languages. Our 
means of information are, at present, too limited, and we must patiently 
wait the result of those inquiries, which, though commenced too late, have, 



70 



at length, been happily begun by the American Philosophical Society. The 
collection of information from distant and independent sources, will lead, 
by a gradual approximation, to the most accurate results ; and we shall 
probably be able to apply to the subject, the remarks of the great lexico- 
grapher of our language, that in proportion " as books are multiplied, the 
various dialects of the same country will always be observed to grow fewer 
and less different." 

Perhaps I ought not to dismiss this subject without observing, that Mr. 
Jefferson long ago made the same remark as M. Von Humboldt, with re- 
gard to the great number of American languages, in his Notes on Virginia. 
« Arranging them," says he, " under the radical ones to which they may 
be palpably traced ; and doing the same by those of the red men of Asia, 
there will be found, probably, twenty in America for one in Asia, of those 
radical languages, so called, because, if they were ever the same, they have 
lost all resemblance tc one another. A separation into dialects may be the 
work of u few ages only, but for two dialects to recede from one another 
till they have lost all vestiges of their common origin, must require an im- 
me r s<: course of time ; perhaps, not less than many people give to the age 
of the earth. A greater number of those radical changes of language having 
ta;:e.i place among the red men of America, proves them of greater antiqui- 
ty ■ '. ii those of Asia." — Notes on Virginia, Query 11. Aborigines. 

The acute and scientific author might have contented himself with stating 
the fact, and have spared the slur upon Revelation. It is by no means certain, 
that the same phenomenon does not exist in Asia. The languages spoken 
in the immediate neighbourhood of the Caucasian mountains, have little 
more in common than their geographical situation. " Except the Armenian 
and Georgian," say the Quarterly Reviewers after Adelung, " they are scarcely 
ever employed in writing ; and, principally perhaps from this cause, they ex- 
hibit as great a diversity in the space of a few square miles, as those of many other 
nations do, in as many thousands." Q. R.vol.x. p.285.Rev. of the Mithridates. 
But admitting that it is confined to America, is there no way of solving 
the difficulty, but by attacking the Scriptures ? And if it be inexplicable, shall 
we surrender all the stupendous evidences of Divine Revelation, because we 
are unable to account for a fact which is comparatively insignificant ? This 
is a kind of minute philosophy, unworthy of so distinguished a name, which 
can be compared only to the calculations of the Canon Recupero in Bry- 
doue, who sought to determine the world's age by enumerating the lavas of 
^Etna. 

NOTE D. 

There maybe an affinity among languages in two ways; in etymology, 
and in grammatical construction. Where there are etymological affini- 



71 



ties, there will of course be a similarity in grammatical forms. On the 
other hand, languages may be entirely different as to etymology, and yet 
similar in grammatical construction. The question, with regard to the de- 
scent of the Indians from the Hebrews, must rest upon both these affinities ; 
for although resemblances in grammatical construction will not prove a 
common origin, yet differences in grammar afford the strongest evidence of 
the converse of the proposition. 

ETYMOLOGY. 

Table I. — Delaware, and Iroquois words of the Onondago dialect, 



from Zeisberger. 



Lenap6 or Delaware. 


Iroquois, (Onond. 
dialect.) 


Hebrew. 


God, 


Patanuiwos, 


Nioh, 


Elohim, 


DN-rbx 


Spirit, 


Mannitto, 


Otcon, 


Ruach, 


mn 


Man, 


Lenno, 


Etschinak, 


Ish, 


W*K 


Woman, 


Ochqueu, 


Echro, 


Isha, 


TW* 


To Die, 


Angeln, 


Yaiche-ye, ) 
Yawo-he-ye, $ 
Waunteconi, 


Mut-th, 


ma 










To Eat, 


Mitzin, 


Achal, 


blK 


Flesh, 


Oyos, 


Owachra, 


Ba-sar, 


IV* 


Fish, 


Nama?s, 


Otschionta, 


Dag) 
Nge-tsem, 


31 


Bone, 


Wochgan, 


Oschtiehnta,* 


D3W 


A Child, 


Amemens, 


Ixhaa, 


Nan gar, 


*1OT 



It may not be amiss to make some remarks upon the pronunciation of this 
and the following specimens. In Zeisberger's vocabulary, the powers of 
the German Alphabet are employed to express the pronunciation of Indian 
words. Ch has the guttural sound of the Greek X. When the consonants 
are doubled, it is merely to denote that the preceding vowel is short, as a in 
man. /andj before a vowel have the power ot'y which I have therefore 
in most cases taken the liberty to substitute. Sck is equivalent to the English 
sh. The apostrophe after n fc and * denotes the contraction of a vowel, as 
n'pommauchri, for ni pommaucfui. Que and ke differ ; the former being pro- 
nounced like kwe. W before a vowel, as in English. In representing the 
Hebrew in English letters, I have followed the points, which give, I am in- 
clined to believe, the traditional representation of the original vowel sounds. 
These remarks will apply to all the specimens, excepting those from Adair, 
»f which I can say nothing. 



Cherokee, K6ra, according to Adair. 



72 



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Tellen, 




r 
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Skoeh, 


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a c a 

ill 

re" --=> 

?s} 

g re « 

^ >o a 
~. £■ cr- 

sirs! 

re <=" § 

111 

^q re" 

III 



si § 

II § 

g-S- o 

« ft » 

s » 

In 5" 

§■'1 



l& 

h 
li 

Is 

ft £, 

II 
*i 



10 



7-4 



3c 


pers. 


2d p. 


1st per. 

ocs 






HH 


HH 


X X 


a a 


o o 






w w 


2 « 


<S «3 


g * " 






V ~ 


3 J* 


* " 






*>. 


1 3 










o 


3" 




g. 






3 


O 










g: 


3_ 


" 




■3 






S* 










» 














0) 






6" 


■a 












/-•-•v*^ 


/ -^ \ 


' vv > 


i * \ 


■~, 


© 


era" S 


cr^S J c 3 


ST "- 


a o p 3 




$• 


C 3 
3 IT. 


3 C*. S c ST. - 


"- » 


*Fil 


41 


3 


"•" 


<?"*♦ 2. = — °" 


>-. 


P B "^* 


a 


3 
O 
3 




b; >- a v" 


cd 


"§ " 5' 




Bk 






"* 


P 3 


U. 


SB 

era 








B 




o 








w 


t 


CD 
Q 


°2 


5. ts 


v< 


pi 


k< 


5 


p 3" 

3" = 


o 


c 

3 


s 




«r* - 


p ST. 




c 


"5 






B 


fe» 


P7- 








CD 












?r 












5 


5 
P 


3 


-= 






9! 












3 






3 

5- 






J 












c 
5 


B 
P 


CD 


| 




1 


" 




kg 






5L 






3 












-i 
















crs- 


3- tar 


P » 


3 P 05 






cd <o 


cs o 




pj 3 3 






3 3 


3 B 


CD CD 


« P 3 






3 » 
3-S 


3" 
& 


B 3 


3* C2 - 

C 3 

" a 


to 








c- 3 








3-^. 


3o 


3 3 






£ 

§» 


^"3* 


u u 


X X 


d z x 




p 






e> a 


a 




rt> 


a 


cr =r 


a 






a 


3 


CD CD 

3 3 
3f 




g 

s 

3 




3" 





-^0 


d 







75 



II. Example of a Noun in the Lenapi, or Delaware, with the Inseparable Pro- 
nouns, from Heckew elder's Correspondence, Let. XXI. (Transac. ut sup. p. 
426.) compared with the Hebrew. 



Father. Delaware, Ooch .* Hebrew, Ab, ax. 



My Father, 
Thy Father, 
His Father, 
Her Father, 
Our Father, 


Nooch, 

Kooch, 

Oochwall, 

Oochwall, 

Nochena, 


Abi, »3K 
Abicha, (m.) Abich, (f.) -pax 
Abiv, or Abihu, IITON Tax 
Abiha, rrax 
Abinu, 1T3K 


Your Father, 


Kochuwa, 


Abichem, (m.) Abichen, (f.) { J? f S * K 
Abihem, (m.) Abihen, (f.) ) m .D^H 


Their Father, 


Ochuwawall, 



In Delaware, the pronoun is sometimes prefixed and sometimes suffixed. 
In Hebrew, it is uniformly suffixed. 

According to Adair, my father is, in Chickasaw Angge, in Cherokee Ake- 
tohta ; your father, Chickasaw Chinge, Cherokee Chalokta. My mother, 
Chickasaw Saske, Cherokee Machee ; your mother, Chickasaw, Chishke, 
Cherokee Chacheeah. 



* Ooch is the abstract word. " Wetoochvvink," the father, is commonlt/ 
used, because there are few occasions of using this word in the abstract sense 



76 



III. Example oj Hit Verb To Love, in Hie Lenape or Delaware, and Iroquois 
compared ivith the Hebrew. 

Under the general name of Iroquois, I have given the Onondago verb 
from Zeisberger, and the Mohawk, which I wrote down in Albany, in the 
year 1817, from the mouth of Mr. Eleazar Williams, a son of one of the 
chiefs of the Oneida nation, who is now a candidate for Holy Orders, and a 
lay reader and catechist among the Oneidas. Mr. Williams has received a 
very good education ; is acquainted with Greek and Latin ; and speaks 
French fluently. He assured me, that the Mohawk was the pure, or mother 
tongue, which was understood by all the five nations ; but that each had a 
dialect of its own. An evidence of the correctness of this statement, was 
afforded me by an interview which I had with several chiefs of the Onon- 
dago tribe, who were at Albany transacting some business with the governor. 
On that occasion I read the general confession in our liturgy ; after which 
Mr. Williams translated it for them, and then proceeded to read in the Mo- 
hawk, the prayer for all conditions of men. In looking over it, as he read, 
I perceived that the vowels had the full Italian sounds, excepting a, pro- 
nounced like aw; that the nasal sounds an, on, kc. were exactly like the 
French ; and that the guttural sounds were like those of the Oriental lan- 
guages. I observed, likewise, that the accent was chiefly on the ultimate 
and penultimate. I ventured, therefore, to read a portion of the prayers 
and hymns, and succeeded so well that they understood me, and expressed 
their surprise and pleasure. This is a proof, not only of the ease with which 
a correct pronunciation might be acquired, but also of the fact, that the 
Onondagoes understand the Mohawk, though they have a dialect which dif- 
fers from it considerably, as will appear from the verb here exhibited from 
Zeisberger. 



77 



1 




Plural. 




Singu 


'ar. 






H H >< ■< ^ 


U3 IHH- 






S 5. s 5 « 


3 b s a r 1 








M _ C C O 






O 

3 


1 S W M H 


_ P 1 a a •< 

c 2, fr" 






s. 


-*. B C O 








B u. 1 < 










^" -MB 








S2— 


H H 

9."? 






"?~ 


^5°. £P H 


O 50. SPW 






2 a 

If 


op re w 


p p 


^ re 






C. B • sa P 

C- 3 0> C- 


B 3 ■ 
3 3 ' 


l| 








3 S • 3 3 


re re • 


re re 






jf ~ 


5- | • ^ 5- 


.5" - ■ 


- ™ 


~ 




-4 


re j» . re re 






5" 


o 


^. 


CS. ^Ha 


O 35 


02C 




!3 


CO sf -* = 


o o 


3 2 






o 


3 S- • < <»3 


3 3 


S 5 






03 

<■ 

re 

3 


& P= !» C 

It III 

s » . sic 


O © 

S. 3. 

S- S- 

W SB 


O o 

it 

B C 
» P 


i 

S 


2. 










o 
















o* 


s 










re 












% 
























~~-s 
















5" . cl cl 
I.- 3- a- 




dig 

3-2. 


• *^ 

EL CL 
- P P_ 










re" . o o 






! o 5 










^ . a. s. 




£L r 


p. SL 




I -1 

2 






P p P 




p" o 
■ ~. 


! P -F" 








*-; g: 3 
- c 2 








3 














*3_ 






. 3 ,= 
















o 




























o =r 
• o 

c 

o 

E" 

gq 

ffl 
ffi 

o" 


|1§?;|5 

^ ° re 3 

3 ^ So ~, 

1 g g: • o n 

^* giS ^"i 

O 3 re =■■ °- if 

-•*-.=•- E 

c ' re ^3 -i o 

P r. 7 ST •? 5 


S 

o 

re 

re 
3 
C 

3 

- 


n S re 

~ re re 

3 re re 
re -• = 

» -• S" 

5' EL re* 

3 3 
g, B" Q 

3, i • 3- 

2 « ~ 


T "re 

s Z « 

- 8 lf 

|y 

5" 5* 3 

C „ i 

re 3 2 

— - - 

c eJZ, 

- re 2 

o ? ? 




EC 

re 



78 



I shall Love, 
Thou shalt L. (m.) 
(fem. 

He shall Love, 

She shall Love, 
We shall Love, 
Ye shall L. m.) 

(fem. 

Thev shall L. (in. 

(fem. 

) mpers. On Aimera, 






SIS 
re- re- re- 

III 
III 

o ? re 
pr re x 

• CO -T 

x* re- 
re-"" 


— - — — — * Sn 

re- re- re- re^ re- re- 

3 3 3 3 • B 3 

re re p, p, re m 

=5 < = B ■ 3 3 
p p C O- • g-O- 
3 3 3 3 . - 3 
C- O- S g < < 
5 = re re * J » 

111 1 ■ p-i- 

re re re- re- . S>~ ra ~ 
?r w — 

re- re- 


22- 

as s- 
c o 

OS.3- 

£ s ° • 
3 £ ©-• 

2. i * • 


Z^2 3 • 22 
w «:<w b- . «» w» 
■S f < o o 2: » 

<! < 3 3 '33 

III | : || 

J: J= g g 1 p § 
p p 




> 



re" 

2_ 


p_ p_ 
o 5 
5" re" 

3" 3 
3- re 
c re 

3 2. 
2. | 


INdahoalatsch, 
Kdaboalalsch, 

( Ahoaleuchtsch, or 
I Wdahoalatsch, 




- - 
■s re 

:■■ re: 
3" rr 

s a 

^r 

D - 

3 
£ 

4 

5? 


HH2 
J. 5. 2 
=~ =~ cr 
■=- P p- 
i. c- ct n 
rep""* 

3 
8 

L 
5§2 


3 ^^^° 
re re re re 3- 

* re: C: re: p 

5 *§§2 



He did Love, 

She did Love, 
We did Love, 
Ye did Love, (m.) 

(fem.) 

Thev did L. (m.) 

(fem.) 

Imp. On Aimoit, 


B O 

§ 3 
a r 1 

s § 

t-« 

5 1 'ST 






~ O P 

£-3- 5" 
s ='£■ 

5 O- 3 

S- i ■% 

" "* re- 


< 5 f ! 
p p c- o- 

~ 3 re re 

111 | 

||- - 
re-re- 


3 g 

§• §- 

eg | 

re- re- 


B 
1 


o 
o 


OS 

- 2. 

of!" 

re O n 

ffJN* 

3*| 8 


ir c o o p 

S 3 C g g" 

pill 

fiff! 
illrl 

i 6 g «^ 

re - a 
8 


III 

!■&•§ 

8 


o 

o 
s 
5, 

| 




> 
— 



SL 

_re 

p 

3^ 


W2 
a. a, 

5 o 
o" re* 

3- 3 

3" 3 

c re 
3 3 
o-§ 

p -^ 

3* 


> 

B* 

o 
SL 
3> 


W 2 

B. B. 
P P 
3" 3* 
O O 

SL SL 
re" re* 

7 y 




r 1 

re 
p 

re- 




P" 

cr 
u 


S. SL — 
21 3 

u u u 

XXX 


> > 
1 1 

u u 
se 9: 


> > > 
p- p- p- 

3* C£ C* 

3 3 3 
u u u 

*i n ^ 
% x x 




w 

re 

re 
"5 



79 



H *i m X H 

a m s B* K 

m .. M ^ C 



p r 
« r o 
» o po 



p. - s 
1-1 ► 



C 5 5 o o 
III || 

g'3-g|f 

E"«C 3-S S 



■■2 sSB 



i g * S 



5-0- fB re 
fi> O "*><8 



Love Thou, (masc.) 

(fem.) 

Let him Love, 
Let her Love, 
Love Ye, (masc.) 

(fem.) 

Let them Love, 

(fem.) 

Impers. Qu'onAime, 






Ranonwenn, 
Ganonwenn, 
Sewanonvvenn, 

Ratinonwenn, 

Kontinonwenn, 

Ienonwenn, 


B2 

re 

O 

re 

3 
3 


•- 
? 
2 

s 


3 

1 


■ s* 

• s 

. p> 

3 

■ O 

■ 3- 

• o 

3- 
' .0 

■ 3 

• .5° 


> 

» 

3 
O 

3. 

o 

3" 
X> 

3 




■ o 
. re 


> 
3" 
O 




re 

"3 




) expressed in Heb.by fut. 
J of the indicative. 
Ehebu, -nrrN 
Ehebenah, nssrrtf 

S In Heb. future indicative. 


5« 
55 2- 

J u 
J U 

k r. 




X 
re 

3" 

re 
:» 



80 



When or if I love, 

thou lovest, 

he loves, 

we love, 

ye love, 

they love, 



CONJUNCTIVE MOOD. 
PRESENT. 



Iroquois. 

Zeisberger says, 
in his Onondago 
Grammar, " The 
conjunctive or op- 
tative is not in the 
language, but is ex- 
pressed by the in- 
dicative" 



Lenap6. 

Ahoalak, 

Ahoalanne, 

Ehoalat, 

Ahoalenk, 

Ahoaleque, 

Ahoalachtit. 



There is no 
conj. or opt. 
mood in Heb. 
the idea of de- 
sire or contin- 
gency being 
expressed by 
the fut. ind. 



PRETERITE. 



When or if I loved, 

thou didst I. 

he loved, 

we loved, 

ye loved, 

they loved, 




Ahoalachkup, 

Ahoalannup, 

Ehoalachtup, 

Ahoalenkup, 

Ahoalekap, 

Ahoalachtilup, 



Nothing cor- 
respondent in 
Hebrew. 



PLUPERFECT. 



When or if I had loved, 

thou badst I'd 

he had loved, 

we had I'd, 

ye had loved, 

they had I'd, 



Wanting in Iro- 
quois. 



Ahoalakpanne, 

Ahoalanpanne, 

Ehoalatpanne, 

Ahoalenkpanne, 

Ahoalekpanne, 

Ahoalachtitpanne 



Nothing cor- 
respondent in 
Hebrew. 



When or if I shall love, 

thou shalt I. 

he shall love, 

we shall love, 

ye shall love, 

they shall 1. 



Wanting in Iro- 
quois. 



Ahoalaktsch, 

Ahoalantsch, 

Ehoalatsch, 

Ahoalawonksch, 

Ahoalaweksch, 

Ahoalaktiksch, 



Nothing cor- 
respondent in 
Hebrew. 



INFINITIVE MOOD. 



To love, 

To have loved, 

To be about to love, 



YonorOchqua, 

Yonorochquisqua 

'Nyonorochqua, 



Ahoalan, 



Ehob, 



The participles are not given by Zeisberger, either of the Onondago, or 
Lenni Lenape. 

It must be observed, that my object being merely to show the difference 
between the Indian languages and the Hebrew, I have not attempted to ex- 
hibit a full view of the exuberant richness of their grammatical construction. 
The Delaware verb, Ahoalan, to love, pursued through all its forms, occupies 
alone fourteen folio pages in Zeisberger's Grammar. 

I proceed to give, merely as a specimen, a comparative view of the man- 
ner in which the objective personal pronouns are united to the active verbs. 



81 



EXAMPLE OF THE PERSONAL FORMS IN DELAWARE AND 
HEBREW. 

FIRST PERSONAL FORM, I. 
Delaware, present. 



Singular. 



I love thee, 

I love him or her, 



K'dahoatell 
N'dahoala 



Plural. 



I love you, 
I love them, 



K'dahoalohhumo 

N''lalioala-\\ak 



Hebrew, prceterite. 



I have loved thee, (m.) AhaUicha, 

•proroj 

(f.) Ahabticb, 

-pnnrrx 
I have loved him, Ahabtihu, 

irrnarrN 
her, Ahabtiha, rpnarrN 



I have loved you, (m.) Ahabtichem, 

DSTOnK 
(f.) Ahabticheo, 

I have loved them, (m.) AhabtiUem, 
erraarm 
. (f.) Ahabtihem, 



SECOND PERSONAL FORM, THOU. 



Delaware, present. 



Thou lovest me, 
him or her, 



K'dahoali j ibou lovest us, k"clahoal'n>pen 

K'dahoala them, K'daboalawak 



Hebrew, preelerile, (masc.) 



Ihou (m.) hast loved me, Ahabtani, 

him, Ahabtahu, 

her, Ahabt-h b, 

rrnarrn 



Thou hast loved us, Ahabtanu, 

■onanu 

them, (m.) Ah. it:' m , 

omrrK 
(t.) Ahabtan, franx 



(feminine.) 



Thou (f.) hast loved me, Ahabt.iui, Thou (f.) hast loved us, Ahabtinu, 

-marm i:vn,-TK 



-him,^ 



Ahabtihu, ( is in first 

It , j person. 

Ahabtiha, J 



• them,(m.) Ababi m, 
o*narn« 

(i) Ah: 

f-narrx 



11 



82 

THIRD PERSONAL FORM, HE OR SHE. 

Delaware, present. 



Singular. 



He or she loves me, N'dahoalok 

thee, K'dahoaluk 

him, W'dahoalawall 



He or she loves us, W'dahoalguna 

you, W'dahoalguwa 

them, W'dahoalawak 



Hebrew, prceteriie, (masc.) 
He has loved me, Ahabani, 



- thee,(m.) Ahabcha, -prrx 



(f.) Ahabech, -prrx 

- him, Ahabahu, imrrK 

- her, Ahab-hah, miix 



He lias loved us, Ahabanu, "OanK 

you, (m., Ahabchein, 

D3irrx 

(f.) Ahabehe'i, 

p-zr\H. 

them, (m.) Ahabam, 

nsrrx 
(f.) Ahaban, farm 



(t'eminine.) 



She has loved me, Ahabathni, <3narrx 
— thee, (m.) Ahabathcha, 

-jmrrx 
(f.) Ahabathech, 

-jmrrx 
-him, Ahabath-huoi-TmrrN 

her, Ahabath-hah,nri2rTX 



She has loved us, Ahabathnu, isnanx 
you, (m.) Ahabathchem, 

(f.) Ahabathchen, 

them, (m.) Ahabatham, 

onamc 

(f.) Ahabathan, 

JnarrK 



IV. As a specimen of the Grammatical forms of the Floridian Languages, 
1 subjoin the " Conjugation of a verb in the Cherokee language, by the Rev. 
Daniel S. Butrick," communicated by him to the American Philosophical 
Society. I copy it with the division of syllables, accents, &ic. from the ori- 
ginal paper. 

ACTIVE VOICE— INDICATIVE MOOD. 

PRESENT TENSE. 



Sin is. 



Dual. 



Plural. 



tse ne yl. 1 take, or 
am takiiig, (a per- 
son,) 

he ne yl. Thou ta- 
kest, 

CO ne yl. He or she 
takes, 



1. a ne ne yi. We two 

take, (speaking to 
each other,) 

1. a ste ne yi. We two 

take, (speaking to a 
third person,) 

2. a ste ne yi. You two 

take, 



1. a te ne yl. We (all) 
take, (speaking to 

oneofthecon jinny,) 

1. a tse ne yl. We (all) 

tak^, (speaking to 
one not of the com- 
pany,) 

2. a tse ne vl. You (all) 

take, 

3. lineneyi. They take 



<w 



IMPERFECT TENSE. 



Sing. 


Dual. 


Plur. 


L 
2. 
3. 


tse ne yu hu. I did 

take, 
he ne yu hu. Thou, 

Sec. 
6 ne yu hu. He, kc. 


1. a ne ne yu hu. We 
^ (2) did take, 

1. a ste ne yu hu We 

(2) did take, 

2. a ste ne yu hu. You 

(2) did take, 


1. 
1. 

2. 
3 


a te ne yu hu. We 

(all) did take, 
a tse ne yu hu. We 

(all) did Utke, 
a tse ne yu hu. You 

(all) did take, 
ne ne yu hu. They 

did take. 



PERFECT TENSE. 



i. 


tse ne ve scd. I have 


1. a ne ne ye scu. 


We, 


1. 


a te ne ye scu. We, 




taken, or been ta- 


(2) kc. 






(all) kc. 




king, 


1. a stene ye scu. 


We, 


1. 


a tse ne ye scu. We, 


o 


he ne ye scii. Thou, 


(2) &c. 






(all) ice. 




6.C. 


2. a ste ne ye scu. 


You, 


2. 


a tse ne ye scu. You, 


3. 


cu ne ye scu. He, 


(2) kc. 






(all) 6.c. 




kc. 






3. 


u ne ne ye scu. They, 
kc. 



FIRST FUTURE TENSE. 



1. tu tse ne yu. I shall 


1. ti a ne ne yu. 


We 


1. ti a te ne yu. We, 


take, 


two, kc. 




(all) kc. 


2. te ne yu. Thou, kc. 


1. ti a ste ne yu. 


We 


1. ti a tse ne yu. We, 


3. tu cu ne yu. He, kc. 


two, kc. 




(all) kc. 




2. ti a ste ne yfi. 


You 


2. ti a tse ne yu. You, 




two, kc. 




(all) 6..;. 
3. tu ne ne yfl. They, 
&C. 



SECOND FUTURE TENSE. 



1. 

2. 
3. 


tee ae ye sea, sti. I 
shall be taking. 

he ne ye sea sir. 
Thou, kc. 

cCi ne ye sea str. He, 
kc. 


1. 
1. 

2. 


a ne ne ye sea sti. 

We two, kc. 
a ste ne ye sea sti. 

We two, kc. 
a ste ne ye sea sti. 

You two, kc. 


1. 

1. 

3. 


a te ne ye sea sti. 

We, (all) kc. 
a tse ne ye sea sti. 

We all, kc. 
a tse ne ye sea sti. 

You all, kc. 
u ne ne ye sea sti. 

They, kc. 



" The potential mode is generally formed from the indicative, by prefixing 
yd te ; and the subjunctive, by prefixing ye. What I here call the potential 
mode, expresses power ; there is another mode, for which, as yet, I have n© 
name, to express liberty .- as / may," kc. D. S. B. 



84 



IMPERATIVE MOOD, 



Sing. 



1. tse ne yu. Let me 

take, 

2. he ne yu. Do thou, 

&c. 
2. wi cfi ne yu. Let 
him, &.c. 



1. a ne ne yfi. Let us 
two, &c. 

1. a ste ne yfi. Let us 

two, &tc. 

2. a ste ne yu. Do you 

two, iiC. 



Flur. 

1. a te ne yfi. Let us 
all,&tc. 

1. a tse ne yu. Let us 

all, &ic. 

2. a tse ne yu. Do you 

all, Lc. 

3. wfi ne ne yfi. Let 

them, &.c. 



INFINITIVE MOOD. 



1. tseneyfiU. To take. 


1. a ne ne yfi ti, 


1. a te neyfi ti, 


2. he ne yu ti. 


1. a ste ne yu ti, 


1 . a tse ne yfi ti, 


3. 6 ne yfi ti. 


2. a ste ne yu ti, 


2. a tse ne yfi ti, 

3. 6 ne ne yu ti. 



PASSIVE VOICE— INDICATIVE MOOD. 

PRESENT TENSE. 



Sing. 



Plur. 



1. ung ke ne yu. 1 am 

taken, 

2. a tsfi ne yu. Thou, 



1. ta kin e ne yu. We 

two, &iC. 
1. ta kin e ne yu. We 

two, kc. 



I. a tse ne yu. He, &»c. 2. ta ste ne yu. You 
two, fee. 



1. ta ke ne yfi. We, (all) 
*cc. 

1. take neyfi. We, (all) 

&c. 

2. ta tse ne yfi. You, (all) 

&c. 

3. ta ca tse ne yfi. They, 



IMPERFECT. 



1. ung ke neyu hu. I was, 

iiC. 

2. a tsfi ne yu hu. Thou, 

kc. 

3. a tse ne yu hfi. He, 

&.C. 



1. ta kin e ne yfi hu, 

1. ta kin e ne yu hu, 

2. ta ste ne yfi hu, 



1 . ta ke ne yfi hu, 

1 . ta ke ne yfi hfi, 

2. ta tse ne yu hu, 

3. ta ca tse ne yfi hfi. 



PERFECT. 



1. ung ke ne ye scu. I 


1. 


ta kin e ne ve scu, 


1 


ta ke ne ye scu, 


hi ve been taken, 


1. 


ta kin e ne ye scfi, 


1. 


ta ke ne ye scu, 


2. a tsu ne ye scu. Thou, 


2, 


ta ste ne ye scu, 


2. 


ta tse ne ye scu, 


Sic. 






3. 


ta ca tse ne ye scu. 


3. a tse ne ye scu. He, 










6iC 











Sing. 



8fi 



Dual. 



Plur. 



1. ti yCing ke ne yu. I 

shall be taken, 

2. ti yfi tsu ne yd. Thou, 

3. ti va tse ne yu. He, 

be. 



1. ti ya kin e ne yu, 

1. ti y,\ kine ne yu, 

2. ti ya ste ne yu, 



1. li ya ke ne yu, 

1 . ti yu ke ne yu, 

2. ti ya tse ne yu, 

3. tu ca tse ne yu. 



N. B. The potential and subjunctive moods are formed in the same man- 
ner as in the active voice. 



IMPERATIVE MOOD. 



1. wiingke ne yd. 


Let 


1 . ta kin e ne yu, 


1. 


ta ke ne yu, 


me be taken, 




1 . ta kin e ne yu, 


1 


la ke ne yu, 


2. wa tsu ne yu. 


Do 


2. ta ste ne yu, 


■2. 


ta tse ne yu, 


thou be, k.c. 






3. 


\vi ti ca tse ne yiS. 


3. wa tse ne yu. 


Let 








him, &c. 











Note. Some words in this mood are distinguished from the present passive 
only by the accent, which is not here marked. 

INFINITIVE MOOD. 



1. ung ke ne yiiti. To 

be taken, 

2. a tsu ne yu ti, 

3. a tse ne yu ti, 



1 . ta kin e ne yu ti, 

1. takin e ne yutl, 

2. ta ste ne yd ti, 



1. ta ke ne yd ti, 

1. ta ke neyutr, 

2. ta tse ne yu ti, 

3. ti ca t<e ne yu ti. 



MIDDLE VOICE— INDICATIVE MOOD. 

PRESENT TENSE. 



Sing. 


Dual. 


Plur. 


1. cu ta neyl. lam ta- 

king, (myself,) 

2. hu ta ne ft Thou, 

&c. 

3. a tk ne yl. He, kc. 


1 ta nu ta ne yT, 

1. ta stu ta ne yT, 

2. ta stu ta ne yi, 


1. ta tu ta neyl, 

1 . ta tsu ta ne y I, 

2. ta tsu ta ne yf, 

3. ta nu ta ne yl. 



86 



IMPERFECT. 



Sing. 

1. k qu ta ne yii hu I 

did take, (myself.) 

2. tsii ta ne yu hu. Thou, 

kc. 

3. 6 ta ne yii hu. He, &.c. 



Dual. 

1. kin it t;\ ne yu hu, 

1. 6 kin U ta ne yu hu, 

2. e stii ta ne yu hu, 



Pfor. 

1. e cii ta !ie yu hCi, 

1. 6 cii ta ne yu hu, 

2. e tsu ta ne yii hu, 

3. to nu ta ne yu hu. 



1. cii ta ne ye sen. I 

have taken, or been 
taking, (myself,) 

2. hu ta ne ye scu. Thou, 

&c. 

3. a ta ne ye scii. He, 

ius. 



1. ta nu ta ne ye scu, 

1. ta stu til ne ye scu, 

2. ta stii ta ne ye scii, 



1. ta tu ta ne ye scii, 

1. tit tsu ta ne ye icu, 

2. ta tsu ta ne ye scu, 

3. tit nii tii ne ye scu. 



FIRST FUTURE 



1. tii cu ta ne yu. I shall 


1. ta tk nu time yu, 


1. ta tii tu tit ne yu, 


take, (mvself,) 


1. ta ti a stu tk ne yu, 


1 ta ti a tsu tii ne yii, 


2. tii ta ne yu. Thou, 


2. ta tii stu ta ne yii, 


2. ta ta tsu tk ne yu, 


&c. 




3. ta tQ nu ta ne yu. 


3. tu n tii ne yd. He, Sie. 







SECOND FUTURE. 



1. cu tii tie ye scu sti. I 

shall be taking, 
(myself,) 

2. hti tk ne ye sea sti. 

Thou, &x. 

3. it tii ne ye sea sti. 

He, oic. 



1. ta nu tii ne ye sea sti, 

1. ta stu tk ne ye sc;\ sti, 

2. ta stu tii ne ye sea sti, 



1 . ta tu tii ne ye scii sti, 

1. tii tsu tii ne ye sea sti, 

2. ta tsu ta ne ye scii sti, 

3. tii nu tii ne ye sea sti. 



The potential and subjunctive moods formed in some respects as in the 
Active Voice. 



IMPERATIVE MOOD. 



1. cii ta ne yii. Let me 


1. ta nii time yii, 


1. tii. tu tit ne vii, 


take, (myself,) 


1. til stu ta ne yii, 


1. ta tsu ta ne yii, 


2. hu ta ne yii. Do thou, 


2. ta stu tii ne yu, 


2. ta tsu ta ne yii, 


&LC 




3. wi tii mi ta ne yu. 


3. wu tk ne yu. Let him, 






&.C. 







87 



INFINITIVE MOOD. 



Sing. 



1. 11 qii t.\ ne yd tt. To 

take, (myself,) 

2. tsfl ta ne y'u ti, 

8. o la ne yd U, 



Dual. 



1. ta kin flta ne yu ti, 

1. ta kin a ta ne yd ti, 

2. ta slu ta ue yu tt, 



1'iur. 



1. ta cii ta ne yti tt, 

1 . la cu ti ne yu U, 
•2. ta t.sn ta ne yu tt, 
3. tsu nil taneyutr. 



" REMARKS. 

" 1. When two are talking together, and one speaks to his companion, he 
says, d w nS yi, JVe (two) arc taking ; but il lie speaks to any other person 
or persons than his companion, he says, d ste ne yi, We (two) arc talcing. 

" 2. When three or more people are talking together, arid one speaks to 
the company, he says, ii te ne~ yi, We (all) arc taking ; but if he speak to any 
person or persons, not included in the expression — not belonging to the 
company, he says, d tsi ne yi, We (all) are taking. So through all the 
voices, modes, and tenses. 

" 3. The infinitive mode is varied by persons. Thus, / want to take, a qua 
16 li, tse ne yu ti : I want you to take, speaking to one person, I say, a, qua tS 
li, /ic" ni yu ti : I want him to take, a qua 16 1>, 6 ne yu li, &.c. he. he. 

" 4. I have passed over the potential and subjunctive modes, because 
there are various ways of forming them, and I am not confident which is 
best. I have omitted the participles, because I am not sufficiently acquaint- 
ed with them." 

U will immediately be seen, that a language so remarkably rich in gram- 
matical forms as to surpass even the Greek, differs loto ccelo from the He- 
brew, one of the simplest of all languages. For the sake of those, however, 
who are unacquainted with the latter, I subjoin the preterite of the verb to 
take, Lakach npb 



Sing. 



Plur. 



He took, Lakdchh npblThey (m. k. f.) took, La-ktchu inp? 

She took, Ltt-kechith rmpblYe (m.) took, Le-kack46m onnpb 

Thou (m.) didst take, Ln-i deltrta nnpb Ye ((.) took. Lt-kach-tcn Jnnpb 

Thou (f.) did*t take, Lc-knrhl nnpb We (m. h f ) took, La-kach-nu Mnpb 
I (m. h f.) took. Lctrkaeh-H Tinpbl 



For the vocabulary from Zeisberger, the conjugation of the verbs in the 
Lenni Lenap6, and Onondago, from the same author, and the above exam- 
ple of the Cherokee verb, I am indebted to the kindness of Peter S.Dupoa- 
ceau, Esq. corresponding secretary of the Historical and Literary Commit 



83 

tee of the American Philosophical Society. As that gentleman is devoting 
his leisure moments with great ardour to the study of Indian languages, we 
have reason to expect, that he will throw much light upon the philosophical 
history of human speech ; a subject in which, to use the words of the Quar- 
terly Reviewers, " the critical scholar, the metaphysician, and the historian, 
are equally interested." 

NOTE E. 

" In the Indian languages, says Mr. Heckewelder, those discriminating 
words or inflections, which we call genders, are not, as with us, in general, 
intended to distinguish between male and female beings, but between 
animate and inanimate things or substances. Trees and plants (annual 
plants and grasses excepted) are included within the generic class of animated 
beings. Hence the personal pronoun has only two modes, if I can so ex- 
press myself, one applicable to the animate, and the other to the inanimate, 
gender; l nekama' is the personal pronominal form which answers to ' he' 
and < she' in English. If you wish to distinguish between the sexes, you 
must add to it the word ' man' or < woman.' Thus, ' nekama lenno' 
means • he,' or ' this man :' ' nekama ochqueu,' ' she,' or ' this woman.' 

" The males of quadrupeds are called l lenno w6chum,' and by contrac- 
tion ' lennochum,' the females ' ochque wechum,' and by contraction ' och- 
quichum,' which is the same as saying he or she beasts. With the winged 
tribe, their generic denomination ' ivehelle' is added to the word which ex- 
presses the sex, thus ' lenno wehelle,' for the male, and * ochquechelle,' 
(with a little contraction,) for the female. There are some animals, the 
females of which have a particular distinguishing name, as <■ nunsclietto," a 
doe, 'nunsheach,' a she bear. This, however, is not common." Corres- 
pondence respecting the Indian languages, Let. vii. Transactions, ut supr. 
p. 367-9. 

" The Indians distinguish the genders, animate and inanimate, even in 
their verbs. Nolhatton and nolhalla, both mean ' I possess,' but the former 
can be used only in speaking of the possession of things inanimate, and the 
latter of living creatures. — In the verb, ' to see,' the same distinction is 
made between things, animate and inanimate. Newau, ' / see,' applies 
only to the former, and ' nemen,' to the latter. Thus the Delawares say ; 
lenno newau, ' I see a man;' tscholens newau, '/see a bird ;' achgook ne- 
wau, « I see a snake ;' On the contrary, they say, wiquam nemen, ' I see a 
house ;' amockol nemen, ' / see a canoe,' &ic. Ibid. p. 438-9. 

These expressions of Mr. Heckewelder are to be takeu, however, with 
due limitation. In their full extent, they apply only to the Lenape and their 
kindred tribes. It is certain, from the specimens of the Mohawk and Onon- 



89 

dago in the preceding note, that there are feminine verbs in the Iroquois. 
That the distinctions of gender exist also in the nouns, is evident from the 
following passage in Zeisberger's Onondago Grammar. " The gender of 
nouns is twofold, masculine and feminine;* it is partly designated or dis- 
tinguished by the nature of the thing, and partly from prefixes, or, to speak 
more accurately, preformatives. Examples : 1. From the nature of the 
thing — Etschinak, a man ; Eehro, a woman. 2. From prefixes — Sayddat, a 
person, (m.) Sgayudat a person, (f.) T'hiatage, two persons, (m.) t'gidtagc, 
two persons, (f.) dchso nihccnati, three persons, (m.) dchso negunati, three 
persons.(f.)" Zeisberger's M. S. Grammar of the Onondago Lang, transl. 
by P. S. Duponceau, Esq. 

Yet we must not hastily conclude, that the distinction of animate and 
inanimate, does not exist in the Iroquois. Charlevoix, whose cautious ac- 
curacy on other subjects leads us to place confidence in what he asserts on 
his own knowledge, says expressly, " Dans le Huron, (a dialect of the Iro- 
quois,) tout se conjugue," &.C. — " Les verbes simples ont une double conju- 
gaison, Tune absolue, l'autre reciproque. Les troisicmes personnes o?U (es 
deux genres, car il n'y en a que deux dans ces langues, a sgavoir le genre no- 
ble, et le genre ignoble. Pour ce qui est des nombres et des tems, on y 
trouve les memes differences, que dans le Grec. Par exemple, pour racon- 
ter un voyage, on s'exprime autrement, si on l'a fait par terre, ou si on l'a 
fait par eau. Les verbes actifs se multipbent autant de fois, qu'il y a de 
choses qui tombent sous leur action ; comme le verbe, qui signifie manger, 
varie autant de fois, qu'il y a de choses comestibles, faction s'exprime 
autrement a I'egard d'une chose animie, et d'une chose inanirnce ; ainsi, voir 
an liomme, el voir une pierre, ce so)d deux verbcsA Se servir d'une chose, 
qui appartient a celui qui s'en sert, ou a celui a qui on parle, ce sont autant 
de verbes differens. — // y a quelque chose de lout cela dans la langue Algon- 
quine, (a dialect of the Lenape or Delaware,) mais la maniere n'en est pas 
la meme, etje ne suis nullement en etat de vous en instruire." Journal 
Hist. p. 197. 

On this subject, Mr. Duponceau thus writes to me: "I have yet found 
nothing in Zeisberger respecting an inanimate gender in the Iroquois, but it 
does not follow from thence, that it does not exist some where, and in some 



' In another grammar of the Onondago, by the same author, he says, " there 
are three genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter. The neuter nouns are those 
which have no sign of gender prefixed to them." In his Delaware grammar, he 
also divides the genders into masculine, feminine, and neuter. Yet we now 
know, that they are also divided into animate and inanimate. 

f The same assertion, and the same example, as that of Heckewelder, with 
respect to the Delaware, above quoted. 

12 



90 

form, in that language ; for in his Delaware Grammar, he divides the gen- 
ders into masculine, feminine, and neuter ; and it is from Mr. Heckewelder 
that we have the account of the inanimate. The truth is, that the writers of 
Indian Grammars, most of them at least, have tried too much to assimilate 
their rules to those of their own language, or of the Latin. It was a great 
while before I satisfied myself, that the Iroquois was Polysynthetic. Ze\s- 
berger's Grammars do not show it; but some other manuscripts of his, and a 
careful investigation of his Grammars and Dictionaries, with that view, have 
convinced me that it is so in the highest degree. This I shall develope at a 
future day, when I have more leisure for it ; but, on the whole, we must be 
careful of general negative inferences, as they may mislead us." 

" The Delaware, though it has this general division of animate and inani- 
inattfh not a stranger to the masculine and feminine; as many names of 
animals are different for the sexes, and others are distinguished as with us by 
a male and female epithet Thus we say, he cat, she cat, cod: sparrow, hen 
sparrow, he. From these, an Iroquois, on a superficial view, might say that 
our language has no genders," he. 

NOTE F. 

Much stress has been laid upon the supposed use of the Hebrew words 
Jehovah and Halleluiah, among the Indians. With regard to the invocation 
of God, by the name of Jehovah, the fact, in the first place, is not certain. 
Some travellers assert that the Indians, when assembled in council, and on 
other solemn occasions, express their approbation by ejaculating Ho, ho, ho, 
with a very guttural emission. In the minutes of a treaty, held at Lancaster, 
I think in 1742, on which occasion Conrad Weiser was interpreter, it is 
said that the chiefs expressed their approbation in the usual manner, by say- 
ing, " Yo-wah." Adair says that they exclaim, " Yo-he-wah," and, accord- 
ing to his manner of interpretation, asserts, that this means " Jehovah." But 
surely all this may be purely imaginary. It is well known that the Hebrew 
nation abstain from the use of this sacred name. We have the authority of 
Josephus and Philo, that it was never pronounced. The Septuagint ver- 
sion, which was made more than 250 years before Christ, constantly substi- 
tutes for it, the word Kwp/oc, Lord, which agrees with the present practice 
among the Jews. It must be proved, then, that before the dispersion of the 
ten tribes, it was customary to pronounce the name of Jehovah, or else the 
use of a similar word among the Indians is hostile to the theory it was in- 
tended to serve. 

As to the word Halleluiah, supposing it to be true that such a word is ut- 
tered, and that it is not an accidental resemblance, what is the inference to 
be drawn from it ? That the Indians arc Hebrews ? But " the ancient Greeks 



91 

had their similar acclamation, E>.«xw I«, with which they both began and 
ended their picans, or hymns, in honour of Apollo." See Parkhurst, Heb. 
Lex. voce brr. v. and Calmet's Diet. Article Alleluia. May we not as well 
conclude, that the Indians are descended from the Greeks, or the Greeks 
from the Hebrews ? All such arguments are extremely unsatisfactory, and 
can weigh nothing in opposition to the facts, that the American languages 
have no affinity with the Hebrew, that the Indians have not the least know- 
ledge of written characters, that none of them practise the rite of circum- 
cision, and that there arc no traces among them of the observation of the 
Sabbath. " It cannot be perceived that they have any set holy-dayes; only 
in some great distresse of want, feare of enemies, times of triumph, and of 
gathering their fruits, the whole countrcy, men, women, and children, as- 
semble to their solemnities." Observations of the Rites of Virginians, bv 
Captain Smith and others. Purchas, vol. v. p. 951. 

NOTE G. 

This belief in subordinate deities is represented by Adair, in conformity 
with bis systemj as only a belief in the ministration of Angels. Hist, of the 
.North American Indians, p. 36. 

" They (viz. the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, k.c.) believe the higher 
regions to be inhabited by good spirits, v\ horn they call Tlottuk hhlohoollo 
and Nana hhlohoollo, ' holy people,' and « relations to the great holy one.' 
The Hotluk Ookproose or Nana Ookproose, ' accursed people,' or « accursed 
beings,' they say, possess the dark regions of the west ; the former attend 
and favour the virtuous; and the latter, in like manner, accompany and 
have power over the vicious." p. 36. " Several warriors have told me, that 
their Nana hhlohoollo, 'concomitant holy spirits,' or angels, have forewarned 
them, as by intuition, of a dangerous ambuscade, which must have been at- 
tended with certain death, when they were alone, and seemingly out of dan- 
ger ; and by virtue of the impulse, they immediately darted off, and, with 
extreme difficulty, escaped the crafty pursuing enemy." p. 37. 

The Chepewyan, or Northern Indians, according to Hearne, " are very 
superstitions with respect to the existence of several kinds of fairies, called 
by them Nant-e-na, whom they frequently say they see; and who are supposed 
by them to inhabit the different elements of earth, sea, and air, according to their 
several qualities. To one or other of those fairies they usually attribute any 
change in their circumstances, either for the better or worse; and as they are 
led into this way of thinking entirely by the art of the conjurers, there is no 
such thing as any general mode of belief; for those jugglers differ so much 
from each other in their accounts of these beings, that those who believe 
any thing they say, have little to do but change their opinions according to 



92 

liic will and caprice of the conjurer, who is almost daily relating some new 
whim or extraordinary event, which, he says, lias been revealed to him in a 
dream, or by some of his favourite fairies, when on a bunting excursion*'? 
Hearne, 347. cap. is. end. What Hearne calls fairies were probably the infe- 
rior tutelary deities. 

When among the Sioux, Captains Lewis and Clarke went to see, (anno 
1804,) "a large mound in the midst of a plain, about sr. 20. w. from the 
mouth of Whitestone River, from which it is nine miles distant. It is called 
by the Indians, the Mountain of Li Me People., or Lillle Spirits, and they be- 
lieve that it is the abode of little devils in the human form, of about 18 inches 
high, and v;ith remarkably large heads; the;/ are armed with sharp arroics, with 
which they are very skilful, and are always on the watch to kill those who should 
have the hardihood to approach their residence. The tradition is, that many 
have suffered from those little evil spirits, and among others, three Maha 
Indians fell a sacrifice to them a few years since. This has inspired all the 
neighbouring nations, Sioux, Mahas, and Ottoes, with such terror, that no 
consideration could tempt them to visit the hill." Lewis and Clarke's ex- 
pedition up the Missouri, vol. 1. p. 52-3. Philad. 1814. 

The term devils'is a gloss of the travellers. These are probably the same 
with the IVfatchi Manittoes, or inferior evil spirits, of the Lenap6. 

" The whole religion of the Mandans, (anno 1804,) consists in the belief 
of one Great Spirit, presiding over their destinies. This being must be in the 
nature of a good genius, since it is associated with the healing art, and the Great 
Spirit is synonomous with Great Medicine, a name also applied to every thing 
which they do not comprehend. Each individual selects for himself the particular 
oliject of his devotion, which is termed his medicine, and is either some invisible 
being, or more commonly sonic animal, which thenceforward becomes his protec- 
tor or his intercessor with the Great Spirit; to propitiate whom, every atten- 
tion is lavished, and every personal consideration is sacrificed. 'I was 
lately owner of 17 horses,' said a Mandau to us one day, ' but I have offered 
them all up to my medicine, and am now poor.' He had in reality taken al! 
his wealth, his horses, into the plain, and, turning them loose, committed 
them to the care of his medicine, and abandoned them for ever. The hor- 
ses, less religious, took care of themselves, and the pious votary travelled 
home on foot." Lewis and Clarke, vol. 1. p. 138. 

"Besides the bufi'aloe dance, we have just described, there is another 
called medicine dance, an entertainment given by any person desirous of 
doing honour to his medicine or genius. He announces that on such a day 
he will sacrifice his horses, or other property, and invites the young females 
of the village to assist in rendering homage to his medicine ; all the inhabit- 
ants may join in the solemnity, which is performed in the open plain, and 
by daylight, but the dance is reserved for the unmarried females. The feast 



93 

h opened by devoting the goods of the Master of the feast to his medicine, whir% 
is represented by a head of the animal itself, or by a medicine bag, if the deity 
be an invisible being." Lewis and Clarke, vol. 1. p. 151-2. 

I am inclined to think that, from an imperfect knowledge of their language 
and religious customs, Lewis and Clarke were led into a mistake respecting 
the term " Medicine," as applied to the Supreme Being, and to the subordi- 
nate divinities The Indians undoubtedly consider the healing ait as a 
supernatural power: and as they cull every thing they do not comprehend 
a Spirit, they would naturally call any medicine, of which they had felt the 
efficacy, a Spirit. Lewis and Clarke may easily, therefore, have been led 
to suppose that their word for Spirit meant medicine. 

That the same belief in one supreme, and numerous subordinate deities, 
existed among the tribes now extinct, who formerly inhabited the Atlantic 
States, appears from the accounts given by the first settlers, which coincide 
in a remarkable manner with the statements of Modern Travellers. 

In the year 1587, Thomas Hariot, sent over by Sir Walter Raleigh, and, 
to use his own expressions, " in dealing with the natural! inhabitants specially 
iraploycd," gives the following statement, concerning the Indians within 
(he Colony of Virginia : 

" Some religion they have already, which, although it be farre from the 
true, yet this being as it is, there is hope it may be the easier and sooner re- 
formed ; they also believe that there are many gods, which they call Metntoac, 
licing of different sorts and degrees, one onely chieje and Great God, which 
hath bene from all elernitie. Who, as they affirme, when hee purposed to 
make the world, made first other Gods of a principal! order, to be as meanrs 
and instruments to be used in the Creation and government to foloiv ; and after 
the sunne, rnoonc, and starves as pettie Gods, and the instruments of the other 
order more principal. First, (they say,) were made waters, out of which by 
the Gods was made all diversitie of creatures that are visible or invisible." 
Backluyt's Collection, vol. 3. p. 276-7. 

In Winslow's " Good News from New-England; or a relation of things 
remarkable in that plantation," anno 1622, occur the following remarks on 
the subject of the Indian Religion: 

" A few things I thought meete to adde heereunto, which I have observed 
amongst the Indians, both touching their religion, and sundry other cus- 
tomes amongst them. And first, whereas myselfe and others, informer letters' 
(which came to the presse against my wille and knowledge,) wrote that the 
Indians about its arc a people without any religion or knoirh dire of any God, 
therein I erred, though wee coidd then gather no better : for as they conceive of 
many divine, powers, so of one whom they call Kiehtan, to be the principall 
maker of nil the rest, and to be made by none : Hee, (they say,) created the 
Heavens, Earth, Sea, and all creatures contained therein. Also, that hee made 



94 

•ne man and one woman, of whom they and wee, and all mankind, came : 
but how they became so nrre dispersed that know they not. At first, they 
say, there was no Sachem or King, but Kiehim- who dwclleth above the 
Heavens, whither all good men goe when they die to see their friends, and 
have their fill of all things : This, his habitation, lyeth westward in the Hea- 
vens they say; thither the bod men goe also, and knocke at His doore, but 
lie bids them Quachet, that is to say Walke abroad, for there is no place for 
such ; so that they wonder in restlesse want and penury. Never man saw 
this Kiehlan ; o\ly old men tell them of him, and bid them tell their children; 
yea, to charge them to teach their posterities Ihe same, and lay the like 
charge upon them. This power they acknowledge to be good, and when they 
abtaine any great matter, meet together and cry unto him, and so likewise for 
plenty, victory, fy-c. sing, dance, feast, give thankes, and hang up garlands, 
and other things in memory of the same. 

" Another power they worship whom they call Hobbamock, and to the 
northward of us Hobbamaqui ; this as farre as wee can conceive is the 
deviii, him they call upon to cure their wounds and diseases. When they 
are curable, hee perswades them hee sends the same for some conceiled an- 
ger against them, but upon their calling upon him, can and doth help them ; 
but when they are mortall, and not curable in nature, then he perswades 
them Kiehlan is angry and sends them, whom none can cure ; insomuch, as 
in that respect cnely they somewhat doubt whether hee bee simply good, 
and therefore in sickness.? never call upon him. This Hobbomock appears in 
sundry formes unto Ihnu, as in the shape of a man, a deare, afawne, an eagle, 
fyc, but most ordinari'y as a snake :" fyc. Furchass Pilgrim, lib. x. chap. v. 
vol. 4- p. 1867 

This Hobbomock, or Hobbamoqui, who " appears in sundry forms," is 
evidently the Oke or Tutelary Deity, which each Indian worships; and Mr. 
Winslow's narrative affords a solution of the pretended worship of the 
devil, which the first settlers imagined they had discovered, and which has 
since heen so frequently mentioned on their authority, without examination. 
The natives, it was found, worshipped another being, beside the Great Spi- 
rit, which every one called his Hobbomock, or Guardian Oke. This, the En- 
glish thought, could be no other than the Devil, and accordingly they as- 
sorted, without further ceremony, what they believed to be a fact. Hence, 
in a " Tractate, written at Henrico in Virginia, by Master Alexander Whit- 
aker, Minister to the Colony there," (anno 1613,) we find the following ac- 
count of the worship of the Kewas, or Tutelary Deity of the Virginian In- 
dians: 

" They acknowledge that there is a Great Good God, but know him not, 
having the eyes of their understanding as yet blinded : wherefore they serve 
Ihe deiill for feare, after a most base manner, sacrificing sometimes, (as 1 



95 

have here heard,) their owne children to hirn.* / have sent one image of 
their God to the counsell in England, which is painted upon am side of a toad- 
stoole, much like unto a deformed monster. Their priests, (whom they call 
Quiokosoughs,) are no other but such as our English witches are," &c. 
Purchas, lib. ix. vol. 4. p 1771. 

NOTE H. 

" Nemo vir magnus sine aliquo afflatu divino unquam fait." Cic. de. 
Nat. Deor. lib. ii. 

"Les sauvages appellent Genie ou Esprit tout ce qui surpasse la 
capacite de leur entendemer.t, et dont ils ne peuvent comprendre la cause, 
lis en croyent de bons et de mauvais." La Hontan, Memoires de l'Am6riqua 
Septentrionale, Amsterd. 1705. ed 2. vol. 2. p. 127. They adore the Great 
Spirit, he observes, in every thing. " Cela est si vrai que drs qu'ils voyent 
quelque chose de beau, de curieux ou de surprenant, surtout le soleil et les 
autres astres, ils s'ecrient aiusi: O Grand Esprit, nous te voyons partout." 
lb. p. 115. — La Hontan was an infidel, and sought to exalt deism at the 
expense of Christianity. It is impossible to read his work without perceiv- 
ing that he shelters himself under the garb of an Indian, while he gives vent 
to opinions which in France would have endangered his safety, if uttered 
as his own. We can never be certain of the accuracy of his statements, ex- 
cepting when corroborated by other testimony. — In the above extracts, it 
will be seen how he has bent to the support of his own notions, the belief 
that every thing in nature has its tutelary spirit. 

It has been before remarked that all nature is divided by the Indians 
into the two great classes of animate and inanimate. It is probable, 
therefore, that all animate nature being considered as one great whole, 
the agency of tutelary spirits is supposed to be co-extensive. — " Un 
Francois ayant un jour jette un souris qu'il venoit de prendre, une petite 
lille la ramassa pour la manger: le pere de l'enfant, qui 1'appen ut, la 
lui arracha, et se mit a faire de grandes caresses a I'animal qui etoit 
mort: le Francois lui en demanda la raison : ' C'est, repondit-il, pour 
appaiser le Guide des souris, atin qu'il ne tourmente pas ma fille, quand 
elle aura mange celle-ci.' Apres quoi, il rendit I'animal a l'enfant, qui le 
inangea." — Charlevoix, Journal, p. 299, 300. — " Non seulenient ces sauvages 
(the Potewotamies, Outagamies, and other nations around Lake Michigan) 
ont,co?«»ie tons les attires, la coutume de se preparer aux grandes chasses par 
desjeunes, (jue les Outagamis poussent meme jusqu'a dix jours de suite, 

niais encore, tandis que les chasseurs sonten campagne, on oblige soovenl 

» This, Purchas afterwards mentions, is found to be fa'sc, vol.5, p. 952. It 
arose from a mistaken notion respecting the ceremony of obtaining a GuardtM 
Spirit for boyj Se< Note I 



96 

les eufans dejeuner, on observe les songes qu'ils ont pendant leur jeiine, 
et on en tire de bons ou de mauvais augures pour le succes de la chasse. Lin- 
tention de cesjeunes est d'appaiser les Ginies tutclaires des animaux, qu'on doit 
chasser, et Tun pretend qu'ils font connoHrc par les reves s'ils s'ojjposeront, ou 
s'ils scrontj avorables aux chasseurs." lb, ubi supra. 

" I have often reflected," says Mr. Heckewelder, "on the curious con- 
nexion which appears to subsist in the mind of an Indian, between man and 
the brute creation, and found much matter in it for curious observation. — 
All beings, endowed by the Creator with the power of volition and self-mo- 
tion, they view in a manner as a great society, of which they are the head, 
he. — They are, in fact, according to their opinions, only the first among 
equals, the legitimate hereditary sovereigns of the whole animated race, of 
•which they are themselves a constituent part. Hence, in their languages, 
those inflections of their nouns, which we call genders, are not, as with us, 
descriptive of the masculine and feminine species, but of the animate and 
inanimate kinds. Indeed, they go so far as to include trees and plants within 
the first of these descriptions. All animated nature, in whatever degree, is, 
in their eyes, a great whole, from which they have not yet ventured to sepa- 
rate themselves. They do not exclude other animals from their world of 
Spirits, the place to which they expect to go after death. 

" A Delaware hunter once shot a huge bear, and broke its back bone. 
The animal fell, and set up a most plaintive cry, something like that of the 
panther when he is hungry. The hunter, instead of giving him another shot, 
stood up close to him, aud addressed him in these words: 'Hearkye ! bear; 
you are a coward, and no warrior, as you pretend to be. Were you a warrior, 
you would show it by your firmness, and not cry and whimper like an old 
woman. You know, bear, that our tribes are at war with each other, and 
that your's was the aggressor. You have found the Indians too powerful for 
you, and you have gone sneaking about in the woods, stealing their hogs : 
perhaps at this time you have hog's flesh in your belly. Had you conquered 
me, I would have borne it with courage, and died like a brave warrior; but 
you, bear, sit here and cry, and disgrace your tribe by your cowardly con- 
duct.' I was present at the delivery of this curious invective. When the 
hunter had despatched the bear, I asked him how he thought that poor ani- 
mal could understand what he said to it ? 'Oh!' said he, in answer, 'the 
bear understood me very well ; did you not observe how ashamed he looked 
while I was upbraiding him?' " Historical Account, he. p. 247 — 9. 

NOTE I. 

Mr. Heckewelder describes the same custom under the name of " Initia- 
tion of Boys ;" " a practice," he says, " which is very common among the 



97 

Indians, and indeed is universal among those nations that 1 have become 
acquainted with." " When a boy is to be thus initiated, he is put under au 
alternate course of physic and fasting, either taking no food whatever, or 
swallowing the most powerful and nauseous medicines, and occasionally be 
is made to drink decoctions of an intoxicating nature, until his mind becomes 
sufficiently bewildered, so that he sees, or fancies that he sees, visions, and 
has extraordinary dreams," kc. — "Then he has interviews with the Man 
nitto, or with Spirits who inform him of what he was before he was born, 
and what he will be after his death. His fate in this life is laid entirely open 
before him ; the Spirit tells him what is to be his future employment,' 
Lc. — " When a boy has been thus initiated, a name is given to him analo- 
gous to the visions that he has seen, and to the destiny that is supposed to be 
prepared for him. The boy, imagining all that happened to him, while un- 
der perturbation, to have been real, sets out in the world with lofty notions 
of himself, and animated with courage for the most desperate undertakings." 
Hist. Account, p. 238, 23'.). 

This practice of blacking the face and fasting, together with the use of 
emetics, as a system of religious purification, for the purpose of obtaining a 
Guardian Spirit, appears to have existed formerly among the natives of Vir- 
ginia and New-England ; though the first settlers were not always able to 
learn the real object of the ceremonies they saw. Tomocomo, one of the 
Chiefs of the Virginian tribes, gave the following account to Mr. Purchas, in 
the year 1616. 

" They use to make blackboyes once in 14 or 15 yeeres generally, for all 
the country, (this happened the last yeere, 1615,) when all of a certaine age, 
that have not beene madeblack-boyes before, are initiated in this ceremonie. 
Some foure monthes after that rite they live apart, and are fed by some ap- 
pointed to carry them their food : they speake to no man, nor come in 
company, seeme distracted, (some thinke by some devillish apparition 
scarred ; certaine, to oblige them to that devillish religion as by a hellish 
sacrament of the devil's institution,) and will offer to shoot at such as 
come nigh them. And when they come into company, yet are, for a cer- 
taine lime, of silent and strange behaviour, and \\ il doe any thing never so 
desperate that they shal be bidden ; if they tel them they shal be old men, 
if they goe not into the fire, they will doe it. There is none of their men 
but are made blacke-boyes at one time or other. Let us observe these things 
with pittie and compassion, and endevour to bring these silly souls out of 
the snare of the Devill, by our prayers, our purses, and all our best endea- 
vours. This may bee added, that their young people have, in manner, no 
knowledge, and the vulgar little of their religion. They use also to beguile 
them with their okce, or image of him in their houses, into whose mouth 
they will put a tobacco-pipe kindled, ami ene behinde that image drawl 

13 



S8 

the smoke, which the sillier vulgar and children thinkc to bee done by their 
God or Idoll." Relation of Tomocomo and Mr. Rolph, in Purchas, vol. v. 
booke 8. chap. 6. p. 955. 

This ceremony was witnessed by the famous Captain John Smith, one of 
the first settlers, and by William White, but they at the time mistook it for a 
sacrifice of the Children to the Devil. See Purchas, vol. 5. p. 952. 

"The Werowance being demanded the meaning of this sacrifice, answered, 
That the Children were not all dead, but the next day they were to drinke 
Wighsalcon, which would make them mad; and they were lo be kept by ihe 
Inst made blacke-boyes in the wildernesse, when their oke did sucke the bloud 
of those which fell to his lot, &c. This sacrifice they held to be so necessa- 
ry, that if they should omit it, their oke or Devil!, and all their other Qui- 
youghcosughes, which are their other gods, would let them have no dear e, lur' 
kies, come, nor fish, and yet besides, he would make a great slaughter amongst 
them." Captain Smith's Description of Virginia. Purchas, vol. 4. p. 1702 
lib. ix. cap. ill . 

Mr. Winslow gives the following account of the Indians of New-England. 
" The Panicses are men of great courage and wisedome, and to these also the 
Dcuill appcareth more familiarly then to others, and, as wee concciue, maketh 
coueuant with them, to preserve them from death by wounds with arrowes, knives, 
hatchets. §-c. or al least both themselucs and especially the people thinke them- 
sclucs lo be freed from the same. Jlnd though against their battels, all of them, 
by painting, disfigure ihcmselues, yd tiny arc knowne by their courage and 
holdnes.se, by reason whereof one of them will chase almost an hundred men, for 
they account it death for whomsoever stand in their way. These are highly 
esteemed by all sorts of people, and are of the Sachim's councill, without, 
which they will notwarre, or undertake any weigbtie businesse," &c. 

"Jfad lo the end liny may haue store of these, they traine up the most for- 
ward and likeliest boys from their childhood in great hardnesse, and make them 
abstain from daintie meat, observing diutrs orders prescribed, to the end that 
when they ewe of age, the Dcuill may appeare to them, causing to drink the juyce 
of sentry, and other bitter hearbs till they cast, which they must disgorge into 
the platter, and drinke againe and againe, till at length, through extraor- 
dinary press of nature, it will seeme to be all bloud, and this the boys will 
doe with eagernesse, till by reason of faint nesse they can scarce stand on their 
legs, and then must goe forth into the cold : also they beat their shins 
with sticks, and cause them to run through bushes, stumps, and brambles, to 
make them hardy and acceptable to the Devill, that in lime he may appeare 
unto them." Purchases Pilgrim, b. x. chap. 5. vol. 4. p. 1S6S. The passages 
in italics sufficiently indicate the confidence and courage with which the 
natives were inspired, from the conviction of their possessing a Guardian 
Spirit, and the painful austerities which their children were obliged to under- 
go in order to obtain one. 



99 



NOTE K. 

In 1584, when Virginia was first discovered, the Captain of one of the 
vessels sent by Sir Walter Raleigh, states, concerning the inhabitants of the 
Island of Roanoak, that " within the place where they feede was their lodg- 
ing, and within that their Idoll, which they worship, ofirhome they speak incre- 
dible things." Hakluyt, vol. 3. p. 249. 4to. Lond. 1600 " When they goe to 
warres they carry about with them their idol, of whom they aske counsel, as the 
Romans were woont of the oracle of Jlpullo. They sing songs as they niarche 
towardes the battell instead of drummes," &:c. Ibid. p. 250. 

NOTE L. 

Adair affirms that the Indians do not " worship any kind of Images what- 
soever/' (p. 22.) " These Indian Americans," he says, "pay their religious 
devoir to Loak Ishto-hoollo-Aba, ' the great, beneficent, supreme, holy Spi- 
rit of Fire,' who resides, (as they think,) above the clouds, and on earth also 
with unpolluted people. He is with them the sole author of warmth, light 
and of all animal and vegetable life. They do not pay the least perceivable 
adoration to any images or to dead persons ; neither to the celestial lumina- 
ries, nor evil Spirits, nor any created beings whatsoever." p. 19. Yet he 
afterwards admits that " there is a carved human statue of wood," but as- 
serts that they pay to it no religious homage. " It belongs to the head war- 
town of the upper Muskohge country, and seems to hare been originally de- 
signed to perpetuate the memory of some distinguished hero who deserted well of 
his country ; for when their cusseena, or bitter black drink, is about to be drank 
in the Synedrion, they frequently, on common occasions, ivill bring it there, and 
honour it with the first conchshell-full by the hand of the chief religious attend- 
ant : and then return it to its former place." (p. 22.) He speaks also of 
" Cherub! mical figures in their Synhedria," before which they danced 
through a st: ,v ig religious principle, and always in a bowing posture : (p. 30.) 
When it is recollected that Adair's theory required it to be proved that the 
Indians worship no other than the Supreme Being, it will not be difficult to 
account for the reluctance with which he is obliged to admit the fact of the 
existence of these images, and for the attempt to explain it in consistency 
with his hypothesis. 

"Though so familiar with these genii, they, (the Jugglers,) cannot de- 
scribe their form or nature. They suppose them to lie bodies of a light, 
volatile, shadowy texture. Sometimes they and their disciples will select 
a particular one, and give him for a dwelling, a certain tree, serpent, rock, 
or waterfall, and him they make their fetish, like the Africans of Congw " 
V'olney, p. 417 



t.ofC. 



100 

•• When wc arrived on the west side of the River, each painted the front 
of his target or shield ; some with the figure of the sun, others with that of 
the moon, several with different kinds of birds and beasts of prey, and 
many with the images of imaginary beings, which, according to their silly 
notions, are the inhabitants of the different elements, earth, sea, air, fee. On 
inquiring the reason of their doing so, I learned that each man painted his 
shield with the image of that being on which he relied most for success iu 
the intended engagement." Hearne, 149. 

Yet Hearne affirms elsewhere that they had no religion ! — He speaks in 
this place of the Chepewyan, or Northern Indians, passing the Copper-mine 
River to attack the Esquimaux. 

Just above the mouth of Stone Idol Creek, " we discovered that a few 
miles back from the Missouri there are two stones resembling human figure?, 
and a third like a dog ; all which are objects of great veneration among the 
Ricaras. — Whenever they (the Ricaras) pass these sacred stones, they stop to 
make some offering of dress to propitiate these deities. Such is the account 
given by the Ricara Chief." Lewis and Clarke, (1804,) vol. 1. p. 107. 

Hariot, a servant of Sir AValter Raleigh, says of the natives of Virginia, 
(anno 1587.) "They thinke that all the Gods are of humane shape, and 
therefore they represent them by images in the formes of men which they call 
Kewasowok, one alone is called Kewas: them they place in houses appro- 
priate or temples, which they call Maehicomuck, where they worship, pray, 
sing, and make many times offering unto them. In some Maehicomuck we 
have seene but one Keicas, in some two, and in other some, three. The 
common sort thinke them to be also Gods." Hakluyt, vol. 3. p. 277. See 
also Purchas, vol. v. p. 948. of the Virginian rites related by Master Hariot. 

" Their Idoll, called Kiwasa," says the same author, " is made of wood 
foure foot high, the face resembling the inhabitants of Florida, painted with 
fleshe colour, the brest white, the other parts black, except the legs, which 
are spotted with white ; he hath chaines or strings of beades about his 
neck." Hariot, apud Purchas, vol. v. p. 950. ^ 

" There is yet in Virginia," says Captain Smith, : ' no place discovered to 
be so savage in which the Savages have not a religion. — All things that were 
able to doe them hurt beyond their prevention, they adore with their kinde 
of divine worship ; as the fire, water, lightning, thunder, our ordnance pieces, 
horses, fee. But their Chiefe God they worship is the Divell ; him they 
call Oke, and serve him more of feare than love. They say they have con- 
ference with him, and fashion themselves as neere to his shape as they can 
imagine. In their temples they have his image evil favouredly carved, and then 
painted and adorned icith chaines, copper and beades, and covered irith a skin. 
in such manner as the deformitie may well suite with such a God." De- 
scription of Virginia, Purchas, lib. ix. cap. iii. vol. 4. p. 1701 



101 



NOTE M. 

11 There is an herbe which is sowed apart by itselfe, and is called by the 
inhabitants Uppowoc: in the West Indies it hath divers names, according to 

the severall places and coun treys where it groweth and is used; (he Span- 
yards generally call it Tobacco. — This Uppowoc is of so precious estimation 
amongst them, that they thinke their gods are marvellously delighted there- 
with : whereupon sometime they make hallowed fires, and cast some of the 
pouder therein for a sacrifice : being in a tlorme upon the watt rs, to pacifie their 
gods, they cast some up into the aire, and into the water: so a weare for fish be- 
ing newly sit up, they cast some therein ami into the aire : also after an escape 
of danger, they cast some into the aire likewise : but all done with strange 
gestures, stamping, sometime dancing, clapping of hands, holding up of 
hands, and staring up into the heavens, uttering therewithal! and chattering 
strange words and noises." Hariot, apud Hakluyt, vol. 3. p. 27 1-2. 

" In every territory of a U'erowance, is a temple and a priest, two or three, 
or more. The principal! temple, or place of superstition, is at Uttamussack, 
at Pauiaunk, and neere unto which is a house, temple, or place of Powhatuns. 
Upon the top of certain red sandy hils in the woods, there are three great 
houses filled with images of their kings, and divels, and tombs of their prede- 
cessors. Those houses are neere sixty foot in length, built arbor-wise, after 
their building. This place they count so holy, as that none but the pries's 
and kings dare come into them ; nor the savages dare not go up the river in 
boates by it, but that they solemnly cast some peece of copper, white beads, or 
poconcs into the river ; for feare their Oke should he offended and revenged of 
them. In this place commonly are resident, seven priests,'" kc. Smith's 
Description of Virginia. Purchas, lib. ix. chap. iii. vol.4, p. 1701. 

NOTE N. 

How exactly the Zemcs of the Islanders corresponded with the Okies or 
Maniitocs of the present Continental Indians, will appear from the following 
relation in Purchas : 

"Now, concerning the Zemcs and the superstitions of Hispaniola, the 
Spaniards had beene long in the iland before they knew that the people 
worshipped any thing but the lights of Heaven ; but after, by further con- 
versing and living amongst them, they came to know more of their religion, 
of which, one Ramonus, a Spanish heremite, writ a booke, and Martyr hath 
borrowed of him to lend us. It is apparent, by the images which they wor- 
shipped, that there appeared unto them ceitaine illusions of evil spirits. 
These images they made of Gossampine cotton hard stopped, sitting, like the 
pictures of the Divel, wkich they railed '/.ernes: whan thry take to be the 



102 

mediators and messengers of the Great God, which they acknowledge One, 
Eternall, Infinite, Omnipotent, Invisible. Of these they thinke they oblaine 
mine or faire weather ; and when they goe to the warres, they have ccrtaine 
little ones which they bind to their foreheads. Every king hath his particular 
Zemes, which he honoureth. They call the Eternall God by these two names, 
Jocanna and Guamanomocon, as their predecessors taught them, affirming, 
(hat he hath a father, called by these five names, Attabeira, Mamona, Guaca- 
rapita, Liella, Guimazoa. 

" They make the Zemes of divers matter and forme : some of wood, as they 
were admonished by certaine visions appearing to them in the woods : 
others, which had received answere of them among the rockes, make them 
of stone : some of rootes, (o the similitude of such as appeare to them when 
they gather the rootes whereof they make their bread, thinking that the 
Zemes sent them plenty of these rootes. They attribute a Zemes to the par- 
ticular tuition of every thing ; — some assigned to the sea, others to fountaines, 
woods, or other their peculiar charges." Purchas, vol. v. p. 1091. 

NOTE O. 

" The Mandans," according to Captains Lewis and Clarke, 1804, '• be- 
lieve" that " the whole nation" formerly " resided in one large village under 
ground, near a subterraneous lake." Accident made them acquainted with 
the charms of the upper region, and about one half of the nation ascended 
to the surface of the earth. When they die, they expect to return to the 
original seats of their forefathers ; " the good reaching the ancient village by 
means of the lake, which the burden of the sins of the wicked will not ena- 
ble them to cross." See the tradition related at large, Exped. up the Mis- 
souri, vol. 1. p. 139. 

" Kagohami came down to see us early ; his village is afflicted by the 
death of one of their eldest men, who, from his account to us, must have 
seen one hundred and twenty winters. Just as he was dying, he requested 
his grandchildren to dress him in his best robe when he was dead, and then 
carry him on a hill, and seat him on a stone, with his face down the river 
towards their old villages, that he might go straight to his brother, who had 
passed before him to the ancient village under ground." Ibid, vol. 1 p. 163. 

It is remarkable how many of the Indian nations think they formerly 
lived under ground. 

"They," the natives of Virginia, (anno, 1587,) "believe also the immor- 
talitie of the soule, that after this life, as soone as the soule is departed from 
the body, according to the workes it hath done, it is either caried to heaven, the 
habitacle of Gods, there to enjoy perpetuall blisse and happinesse, or els to a 
great pitte or hole, which they thinke to be in the furthest parts of their part 



103 

of the world toward the sunne set, there to burne continually : the place 
they call Popogusso." Hariot,apud Hackluyt, vol. 3. p. 277. 

" They think that their werowances and priests, which they also esteeme 
Qyiyougheosughes, when they are dead, goe beyond the rnountaines towards 
the setting of the sunne, and over remaine there in forme of their Oke, 
with their heads painted with oileand pocones, finely trimmed with feathers, 
and shall have beades, hatchets, copper, and tobacco, doing nothing but 
dance and sing, with all their predecessors," &.c. Capt. Smith's Description 
of Virginia, apud Purchas, vol. iv. p. 1702. 

NOTE P. 

See Heckewelder's account of Indian funerals, Hist. Ace. p. 262-271. 
" This hole" (in the coffin) " is for the spirit of the deceased to go in and out 
at pleasure, until it has found the plaee of its future residence." p. 266. "At 
dusk a kettle of victuals teas carried to the grave, and placed upon it, and the 
same was done every evening for the space of three weeks, at the end of which 
it was supposed that the traveller had found her place of residence." p 270. 
This was the funeral of the wife of Shingask, a noted Delaware chief, at 
which Mr. H. was present in 1762. 

Blackbird, a Maha chief, died of the small pox about four years before 
Lewis and Clarke's expedition, (i. e. in 1800.) On the top of a knoll, three 
hundred feet above the water, a mound of twelve feet diameter at the base, 
and six feet high, is raised over the body of the deceased king. " Ever since 
his death he is supplied with provisions from time to lime, by the superstitious 
regard of the Mahas." Lewis and Clarke's Exped. up the Missouri, vol. 1. 
p. 43. " The effects of the small pox on that nation" (the Mahas) " are most 
distressing. — They had been a military and powerful people, but when these 
warriors saw their strength wasting before a malady which they could not 
resist, their frenzy was extreme ; they burnt their village, and many of them 
put to death their wives and children, to save them from so cruel an afflic- 
tion, and that all might go together to some belter country." Ibid. p. 45. 
Compare with this, Hebr. xi. 14, 15, 16. 

NOTE Q. 

" When any of their relations die," says Adair, " they immediately fire 
o(F several guns, by one, two, and three at a time, for fear of being plagued 
with the last troublesome neighbours :" (the llottuk ookproose, accursed 
people, or evil spirits.) " All the adjacent towns also on the occasion, whoop 
and halloo at night; for they reckon, this offensive noise sends off the 
•hosts to their proper fixed place, till they return at some certain time, to 



104 

repossess their beloved tract of land, and enjoy their terrestrial paradise. 
As they believe in God, so they firmly believe that there is a class of higher 
beings than men, and a future state of existence." Hist, of North American 
Indians, p. 36. 



NOTE R. 

In another place, Charlevoix mentions the superstitions of the Otta.vas, 
among whom an Idol was erected, " et tout le monde occupe a lui sacrifier 
des Chiens." Hist, de la Nouv. France, Tom. 1. p. 392. " Les Cliques 
adorent le soleil, auquel ils sacrifient des Chiens." Ibid. p. 3i>7. 

Lewis and Clarke, (anno 1S04,) observed the same custom among 
the Tetons Okaudandas. " The hall, or council room, was in the shape 
of three quarters of a circle covered at the top and sides with skins 
well dressed and sewed together. Under this shelter sat about 70 
men, forming a circle round the chief, before whom were placed a Spa- 
nish flag, and the one we had given them yesterday," &tc. — " After he 
had ceased, the great chief rose and delivered an harangue to the same 
effect : then, with great solemnity, he look some of the ino^t delicate parts 
of the dog, which was cooked for the festival, and held it to the fag by 
way of sacrifice .- this done, he held up the pipe of peace, and first pointed it 
towards the heavens, then to the four quarters of the globe, and then to the 
earth, made a short speech, lighted the pipe, and presented it to us." Expe- 
dition up the Missouri, vol. 1. p. 84. 

** When any of the young men of these nations, (Iroquois,) have a mind 
to signalize themselves, and to gain a reputation among their countrymen, 
by some notable enterprise against their enemy, they, at firstj communicate 
their design to two or three of their most intimate friends ; and if they come 
into it, an invitation is made in their names to all the young men of the 
Castle to feast on dog's flesh ; but whether this be because dog's flesh is most 
agreeable to Indian palates, or whether it be as an emblem of fidelity for 
which the dog is distinguished by all nations, that it is always used on 
this occasion, I have not sufficient information to determine. When the 
company is met, the promoters of the enterprise set forth the undertaking 
in the best colours they can; they boast of what they intend to do, and 
incite others l> join, from the glory there is to be obtained ; and all who eat 
of the dog's flesh, thereby enlist themselves" Colden's Hist, of Five Indian 
Nations of Canada, Introduc. p. vi. 

Bernal Diaz, one of the companions of Cortes, mentions the same prac- 
tice as prevailing among the Mexicans. 

" When he arrived at the summits he found there an Indian woman, very 



105 

fat, and having with her a dog of that species, which they breed in order to eai> 
and which do not bark. This Indian was a witch ; she was in the act oj 
sacrificing the dog which is a signal of hostility" The true Hist, of the Con- 
quest of Mexico, by Captain Bernal Diaz del Castillo, one of the Conquer- 
ors, written in the year 15G8. Keatinge's Trans, p. 352. 

In the Scriptures, dogs and swine are continually mentioned together as 
animals equally unclean. Hence, the prophet, reprehending the hypocrisj 
of those who rested in mere external observances, could think of no stronger 
figure to represent the abhorrence with which God regarded their offerings, 
than the comparison of them to the sacrifice of dogs and swine. " He that 
sacrificed) a lamb, is as if he cut off a dog's neck ; he that olfereth an obla- 
tion as if he offered swine's blood," &ic. Isaiah, lxvi. 3. Comp. Matt. vii. 6\ 
and 2 Pet. ii. 22. The law not only forbade dogs lo be offered to God, but 
even the price for which dogs were sold. Deut. xxiii. 18. Sec Bochart 
Hieroz. lib. ii. cap. lvi. pars. 1. p. 690. 

Is it credible that nations, descended from the Hebrews, would have so 
far forgotten their origin, as to olfer in sacrifice, what the law of Moses 
declared to be an abomination in the sight of God ? — Adair speaks of the 
aversion which the Indians originally had to swine's flesh, as a proof of 
their Hebrew origin, but is silent respecting the practice of sacrificing and 
eating that of dogs. Hist. N. Amer. Indians, p. 133-4. 

NOTE S. 

Hearne, speaking of the superstitious observances of the Chepewyan In 
dians, after an engagementjwith the Esquimaux, says, that all who had shed 
blood were considered in a state of uncleanness, and were not permitted to 
cook any victuals for themselves or others. The murderers painted all the 
space between the nose and chin, as well as the greater part of their cheeks, 
with red ochre before they would taste a bit of food, and would not drink 
out of any other dish, or smoke out of any othev pipe but their own ; and 
none of the others seemed willing to drink or smoke out of theirs. All 
these ceremonies were observed from the time of their killing the Esqui- 
maux in July, till the winter began to set in, and during the whole of that 
time they would never kiss any of their wives or children. They refrained 
also from eating many parts of the deer, and other animals, particularly the 
head, entrails, and blood , and during their uncleanness, their victuals were 
never sodden in water, but dried in the sun, eaten quite raw, or boiled, wheu 
a fire fit for the purpose could be procured. 

" When the time arrived for putting an end to these ceremonies, the men, 
without a female being present, made a fire at some distance from the tents ? 
into which they threw all their ornaments, pipe-stems, and dishes, which 

14 



106 

were soon consumed to ashes ; after which a feast was prepared, consisting 
of such articles as they had long been prohibited from eating ; and when all 
was over, each man was at liberty to eat, drink, and smoke as he pleased ; 
and also to kiss his wives and children at discretion, which they seemed t© 
do with more raptures than I had ever known them do it either before or 
since." Hearne, p. 204-6. This was evidently an expiatory rite, a purifi- 
cation by fire and a sacrifice. How inconsistent with Hearne's assertion in 
another place, that they have no religion! 

Captain Smith thus describes the worship of the natives of Virginia : 

" The manner of their devotion is, sometimes to make a great fire in the 
house or fields, and all to sing and dance about it with rallies, and shout to- 
gether four or five houres. Sometime they set a man in the midst, and about 
him they dance and sing, he all the while clapping his hands, as if he would 
keepe time, and after their songs and dances ended, they goe to their feasts. 

" They have also certaine altar stones, they call Pawcorances, but these 
stand from their temples, some by their houses, others in the woods and 
wildernesses, where they have had any extraordinary accident or incoun- 
ter. As you travell by them they will tell you the cause of their erection, 
wherein they instruct their children ; so that they are in stead of records 
and memorialls of their antiquities. Upon this they offer Blond, Deare Suet, 
and Tobacco. These they doe when they relume from the warres, from hunt- 
ing, and upon many other occasioiis. They have also another superstition that 
they use in stormes, ivhen the ivalers are rough in the Rivers and Seacoasls. 
Their conjurers runne to the water sides, or passing in their boats, after 
many hellish outcries and invocations, they cast tobacco, copper, pocones, or 
such ti-ash, into the water, to pacifie that God whom they thinke to be very angry 
in those stormes. Before their dinners and suppers, the better sort will take 
the first bit, and cast it i?i the fire, which is all the grace they are knowne to 
•use." Description of Virginia, by Captaine John Smith. Purchas, lib. ix. 
chap. iii. vol. 4. p. 1702. 

Mr. Winslow gives the following account of the religious rites of the na- 
tives of New-England : 

" Many sacrifices the Indians use, and in some cases kill children. It seem- 
eth they are various in their religious worship in a little distance, and grow 
more and more cold in their worship to Kiehtan," &.c. " The Nanohigganses 
exceed in their blind devotion, and have a great spatious house wherein 
onely some few (that as we may tearme them priests) come : thither at cer- 
taine knowne times, resort all their people, and offer almost all the riches Ihey 
have to their Gods, as kettles, skins, hatchets, beades, knives, fy-c. all which are cast 
by the priests into a great fire that they make in the midst of the house, and there 
consumed to ashes. To this ottering, every man bringeth freely, and the more 
bee is knowne to bring, hath the better esteeme of all men." Good News 
from New-England, kc. Purchas, vol. 4. lib. x. chap. v. p. 1867-8, 



107 



NOTE T. 

'' One would think it scarce possible," says Bryant in his Analysis of An 
tient Mythology, " that so unnatural a custom, as that of human sacrifice?, 
should have existed in the world ; but it is very certain, that it did not only 
exist, but almost universally prevail." Analysis, Edit. 3d. 8vo. Lond. 1807. 
vol. 6. p. 295. 

From this learned writer I select a few examples of this horrid practice, 
referring for complete satisfaction on this interesting subject to the work 
itself. 

" Phylarchus affirms, as he is quoted by Porphyry, that of old, every 
Grecian state made it a rule, before they marched towards an enemy, to 
solicit a blessing on their undertakings by human victims. Aristomenes, 
the Messenian, slew 300 noble Lacedemonians, among whom was Theo- 
pompus, the King of Sparta, at the altar of Jupiter, at Ithome. The Spar- 
tan boys were whipped, in the sight of their parents, with such severity be- 
fore the altar of Diana Orthia, that they often expired under the torture. 

Among the Romans, " Caius Marius offered up his own daughter for a vic- 
tim to the Dii Averrunci, to procure success in a battle against the Cimbri. 
AVhen Lentulus and Crassus were Consuls, so lale as the 657th year of Rome, 
a law was enacted that there should be no more human sacrifices. — This 
law, however, was not sufficient to produce their abolition, for not very long 
after this, it is reported, by Suetonius, of Augustus Cresar, when Perusia sur- 
rendered in the time of the second Triumvirate, that, beside multitudes 
executed in a military manner, he offered up, upon the Ides of March, 300 
chosen persons, both of the Equestrian and Senatorian Order, at an altar 
dedicated to the manes of his Uncle Julius Even at Rome itself this cus- 
tom was revived : and Porphyry assures us, that, in his time, a man was 
every year sacrificed at the shrine of Jupiter Latiaris. Heliogabalus offered 
the like victims to the Syrian Deity, which he introduced among the Ro- 
mans. The same is said of Aurelian. 

" The Carthaginians, upon a great defeat of their army by Agathocles, see- 
ing the enemy at their gates, seized at once 200 children of the prime nobi- 
lity, and offered them in public for a sacrifice. Three hundred more, being 
persons who were somehow obnoxious, yielded themselves voluntarily, and 
were put to death with the others. The neglect of which they accused 
themselves, consisted in sacrificing children, purchased of parents among 
the poorer sort who reared them for that purpose ; and not selecting the 
most promising, and the most honourable, as had been the custom of old. 
In short, there were particular children brought up for the altar, as sheep are 
fattened for the shambles : and they were bought and butchered in the 
same manner. — If a person had an only child, it was the more liable to be 
put to death, as being esteemed more acceptable to the deify- and more effi- 



103 

. acious of Hie general good," &c. It is impossible not to shudder at this 
dreadful recital. In comparison with the infernal rites of these civilized 
nations, how pure is the religion of the Savages of America! 

NOTE U. 

The arts practised by these impostors, when called upon to exercise their 
s upposed power of healing, are thus described by Mr. 1 ieckewelder. " At- 
tired in a frightful dress, he approaches his patient, with a variety of con- 
tortions and gestures, and performs by his side, and over him, all the antic 
tricks that his imagination can suggest. He breathes on him, blows in his 
mouth, and squirts some medicines, which he has prepared, in his face, 
mouth, and nose ; he rattles his gourd tilled with dry beans or pebbles, pulls 
out and handles about a variety of sticks and bundles, in which he appears 
to be seeking for the proper remedy, all which is accompanied with the most 
horrid gesticulations, by which he endeavours, as he says, to frighten the 
Spirit or the disorder away," fcc. Hist. Account, p. 225. 

Mr. Hearne's description of the conjurers among the Chepewyan or 

Northern Indians, which is very minute, and disgusting enough, corresponds 

(!y with Heckeweldcr's account, that it would seem as if the same 

.. had sat to each for his picture. From the following passage it will 

dej ends for ^■irvi'>^ upon the aid of his attendant Spirit. 

« — I began to be very inquisitive about the Spirits, which appear to 
them, on these occasions, [swallowing a stick, bayonet, &ic] and their form ; 
when 1 was told that they appeared in various shapes, for almost every 
< on jure r had his peculiar attendant ;, but that the Spirit which attended the 
man who pretended to swallow the piece of wood, they said, generally ap- 
peared to him in the shape of a cloud." Hearne, p. 217-18. of the Northern 
or Chepewyan Indians. 

From the following extracts, it will be seen that the same office existed, 
attended by the same ceremonies, and the same results, among the natives 
of Virginia, at the time of its first settlement by the English. 

" To cure the sicke, a cei taine man with a little rattle, using extreme bowl- 
ings, shouting, singing, with divers antick and strange behaviours over the 
patient, sucketh blood out of his stomack or diseased place." News from 
Virginia by Captain Smith, apud Purchas, vol. v. p. 950. 

Master Alexander Whitaker, Minister to the Colony at Henrico, anno 
1613, states, that " they stand in great awe of the Quiokosovghs, or priests, 
which are a generation of vipers, even of Sathan's owne brood. The man- 
lier of their life is much like to the Popisli Hermits of our age ; for they live 
alone in the woods, in houses sequestered from the common course of men, 
may any man be suffered to come into their house, or to speake with 



109 

ihem, but when this priest doth call him. He taketh no care for his victuals 
for all such kinde of things, both bread and water, &.c. are brought unto a 
place neere unto his cottage, and there are left, which hee fetcheth for his 
proper neede. If they would hare raine, or have lost any thing, they have their 
recourse to him, who conjurethfor them, and many times prevaileth. If they be 
sick, he is their physician ; if they be wounded, he suckcth them. At his com- 
mand they make wane and peace, neither doe they any thing of moment with- 
out him." Whitaker, in Purchas, vol. 4. p. 1771. 

Quiokosough seems to have been an appellation common to their Gods and 
conjurers, unless it be a mistake of the English settlers. The Virginian In- 
dians so fed Captain Smith, "that he much misdoubted that he should have 
beene sacrificed to the Quoyoughquosicke, which is a superiour power they 
worshippe, then the Image whereof, a more ugly thing cannot be described." 
Purchas, vol. v. p. 950. 

The name written by Whitaker, Quiokosough, and by Smith, Quoyoughquo- 
sicke, is, no doubt, the same as Keicasotvok in Hariot's account ; a proof of 
the uncertainty of the orthography of Indian words. 

Among the New-England Indians, the same office was designated by the 
name of Powah, or as it is otherwise written Powow. Thus Mr. Winslow 
states, in his " Good Newes from New-England" — " The office and dutie of 
the Powah, is to be exercised principally in calling upon the Devill, and cur- 
ing diseases of the sickc and wounded, &c 

" In the Powah's speech, hee promiseth to sacrifice many skinnes of Beasts, 
Kettles, Hatchets, Bcades, Knives, and other the best things they have, to the fiend, 
if hee will come to helpe the partie diseased," &c. Purchas, vol. iv. lib. 5. 
cap. v. 

The Savages of Acadia, according to Charlevoix, called their Jongleurs, 
.luhnoins. " Dans l'Acadie — quand on appelle les Jongleurs, e'est moins it 
cause de leur habilete, que parce qu'on suppose, qu'ils peuvent mieux sc^a- 
voir des Esprits la cause du mal,et les remedes, qu'il y faut appliquer. — Dans 
l'Acadie, les Jongleurs s'apelloient Autmoins,et e'etoit ordinairement le chef 
du village, qui etoit revetu de cette dignite." Journal, p. 3t>7-8. 

In the Bohilii of the natives of Hispaniola, when they were visited by Co- 
lumbus, we clearly recognize the same office. 

"Their Boitii, or priests, instruct them in these superstitions: these are 
also physicians, making the people beleeve that they obtaine health for them 
of the Zemcs. They tye themselves to much fasting and outward cleanlinesse 
and purging ; especially where they take upon them the cure of great men : 
for (hen theydrunke the powder of a certaine hearbe, which brought than into a 
furic, wherein they said they teamed many things of their Zemts. Much adoe 
they make about the sickc partie, deforming themselves with many gestures, 
breathing, blowing, sucking the forehead, temples, and nccke of the vatimt: 



110 

sometimes also saying, that the Zeme*is angrie for not erecting a chappell, or 
dedicating to him a grove or garden, or the neglect of other holies. And if 
the sick partie die, his kins-folkes, by witchcraft, enforce the dead to speake, 
and tell them whether hee died by naturall destinie, or by the negligence of 
the Boitii, in not fasting the full due, Or ministring convenient medicine : so 
that, if these physicians be found faulty, they take revenge of them." Pur- 
chas, vol. v. p. 10y3. 

NOTE W. 

Seethe very interesting report of Mr. Duponceau, to the Historical and 
Literary Committee of the American Philosophical Society; and also his 
Correspondence with Mr. Heckewelder. " All the genuine specimens that 
we have seen," he observes, " of the grammatical forms of the Indians from 
North to South, on the Continent and in the Islands, exhibit the same general 
features, and no exception whatever, that I know of, has yet been dis- 
covered." 

" When we find so many different idioms, spoken by nations which reside 
at immense distances from each other, so entirely different in their etymolo- 
gy, that there is not the least appearance of a common derivation, yet so stri- 
kingly similar in their forms that one would imagine the same mind presided 
ever their original formation, we may well suppose that the similarity extends 
through the whole of the language of this race of men, at least until we have 
clear and direct proof to the contrary." Correspondence, ut supr. Letter 
sxiii. 

Will it be thought an extravagant supposition, that it was the Divine mind 
■vhich presided over their original formation ; and that when God confounded 
the languages of men for the very purpose of dispersing them throughout the 
Earth, He should have so planned the systems of speech, as to make similar 
grammatical forms characterize the great divisions of the human race ? 

NOTE X. 

In this opinion I am supported by Charlevoix. " D'ailleurs les idees 
Kjuoiqu'cnticrement confuses, qui leur sont restees d'un Premier Etre, les 
vestiges presqu'etfaces du culte religieux, qu'ils paroissent avoir autrefois 
rendu a cette Divinite Supreme ; et les foibles traces, qu'on rcmarque, 
jusques dans leurs actions les plus indifferentes, de l'ancienne croyance, ct 
de la religion primitive, peuvent les remettre plus facilcment qu'on ne croit, 
dans le chemin dc la verite, et donner a leur conversion au christianisme des 
facilites qu'on ne reacontre pas, ou qui sont contrebalancees par de plus 
grands obstacles, dans les nations les plus civilisees." Charlevoix, Journal; 
p. 2<55. 



Ill 

On this subject, Charlevoix may surely be admitted as a competent witness. 
No men have more accurately studied the human character than the Jesu- 
its ; and their conversion of the natives of Paraguay, and, what is still more 
to our purpose, the success of their present attempts to civilize and convert 
the Araucanians, a nation unconquered by the Spaniards, and in the highest 
degree martial, and jealous of their liberties, is a convincing proof of the 
wisdom of their system. Their missionaries are never solitary, and there- 
fore are not obliged to sink to the level of the savage state, in order to enjoy 
the privileges of social life. The Indians, also, whom they educate, are in- 
duced to marry and settle around them, under their paternal supervision, in- 
stead of being again incorporated with their uncivilized countrymen ; 
among whom, as experience has fully shown, they would quickly lose all 
that they had gained. 



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RELIGION OF THE INDIAN TRIBES 



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DELIVERED BEFORE 



THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 



DECEMBER 20, 1S1$>. 



BY SAMUEL FARMAR JAR VIS, 

D. D. A. A. S. 



Jusques dans lean demarches les plus indifierentes on appert.oit dos traces de. la 
religion primitive; mais qui echapent a ceux, qui ne les etudiont pas assez, par la 
.nt encore plus efiacecs par le defaut destruction, qu'alterees par 
uge M'un ctille superstitious, el par des traditions fabuleuses....C7wrfeiioja'. 



\EW-YORW 



!> BY C. WILEY & CO. 3 WALL ?T 
C. S. Van Winkle, Printer. 



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